Lady Scandalous
by Clementive
Summary: It takes Lady Tenten Morino one bullet fired from Captain Neji Hyuuga's gun to utterly, irrevocably ruin him. NejiTen. Regency!AU. Historical Romance!AU. Part epistolary format.
1. The Improper Correspondence

_**I hadn't planned to write this, but here we are. :)) This is for Tenten Week 2020, prompt: Weapon**_

_**The first two chapters of this fic are entirely written in letters, while the final chapter will be written in the 3rd person. Mostly, because I can.**_

* * *

**LETTER FROM CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA TO LADY TENTEN**

Lady Tenten,

My Lady, forgive me for addressing this letter directly to you contrary to rules of propriety, and by using the subterfuge of my cousin's name in doing so. My imminent departure prevents me from hand-delivering this letter to you and its content forbids my directly soliciting my cousin's help.

I was appalled when I discovered you on my ship yesterday, and I have struggled in vain to find the words that befell this situation. I must come to the realisation that there is merely no word that can fully express my shock at such unladylike behaviour. Was it then not enough for you to humiliate me at the ball, you also wish to lose me? Surely, My Lady, you must think poorly of my intelligence if you boarded my ship disguised in the most grotesque attire. I do not wish to compromise you nor for your father to learn that you were here, dressed in breeches. In which case, I fear more for my rank and standing than for your future. I would use this knowledge as a threat to keep you away from my ship and the harbour if I knew such threat would have any effect on you, for scandal is much more your area of expertise than mine. Instead, I urge you to give me your word you will never board my ship again in exchange for which, I will respect the original terms of our wager and write Mr Lee an apology letter.

Respectfully,

Captain Neji Hyuuga

* * *

**LETTER FROM MISS INO YAMANAKA TO LADY TENTEN**

Tenten,

You are the most scandalous lady in the country!

Everyone is talking about your wager with Captain Hyuuga at the ball yesterday. Upon my word, I have never seen anyone grow as pale as the captain when you aimed his gun and fired true. My father, who is a long-time friend of your father, has been most displeased at breakfast by your unladylike action, though he couldn't say what shocked him more: that you knew how to fire a gun or that you took upon yourself to confront Captain Hyuuga with a wager that exposed his uncharitable character. Poor Mr Lee having such a despicable friend! While I eloquently justified your means to an end, my mother could hardly find justice in your actions. Had I not cited how accomplished you are, my parents may have forbidden me from seeing you ever again. Lady Scandalous is how I should refer to you henceforth! Tho' I hardly believe you would ruin a dress over a man. Or have your servants succeeded in washing away the gunpowder?

Let us now talk about your next visit. Call on me tomorrow morning, so we can have time to be in each other's confidence before Lord Shikamaru calls on my parents. We will then attend the opera. I forbid you from avoiding this social outing.

My compliments to your parents, my dear friend, and please do flatter your mother until she reveals the name of her seamstress!

Ino

* * *

**LETTER FROM LADY TENTEN TO MISS INO YAMANAKA**

My dearest friend,

I have not only ruined a dress for this abject man, but I have also boarded his ship dressed as one. Even after I won our wager and he agreed to apologize to Mr Lee for his behaviour, he declared that a woman had no place on a ship as "the sea would not agree with a woman delicacy. Even you, My Lady, would surely agree". He is most ridiculous! For an unmarried man and one who has spent the last two years or so away at sea, the Captain sure seems to know what a woman ought or ought not to do. Altho', I know this will shock you, I couldn't let such an opportunity pass to educate him. Had he not noticed my hands with his "superior" man eyes, I would be in the middle of the sea having as many adventures as any man.

The captain can grow paler, I assure you. When I tried to demonstrate my degree of comfort dressed as a man (I didn't have a corset and it was quite liberating!), I thought he would swoon like his cousin. Once his surprise passed, he covered me in his cloak. He walked me to a carriage and paid for it. You should know that with good-humour, I agitated my handkerchief at him. He demanded "feminine" behaviour and yet, he couldn't even stomach this much. He reddens like Lady Hinata; their relation is now definitely clearer to me. While he is a disagreeable man, I must confess that nothing like shocking him has ever thrilled me more.

I won't avoid the social outing, but only because my mother has finally learnt of my actions at the Hyuuga castle through the newspapers. She still hopes I may attach a man. The poor woman is probably scheming left and right to ensure I be married off before next season, may it be even to the neighbour's footman. After the scene the Captain caused at the harbour, I believe all hopes are lost as she will learn in time. This suits me perfectly.

Prepare to be the friend of an old spinster perfectly content with herself.

My compliments to your parents for their charitable attitude toward me and my renewed friendship to Lord Shikamaru.

Your most scandalous friend,

Tenten

* * *

**LETTER FROM LADY TENTEN TO CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA**

Captain Hyuuga,

How scandalous! A letter from a man I am not engaged nor related to! I wonder if you blushed as handsomely writing your letter as you did when my carriage drove away at the harbour. I assure you, sir, I have means to send this letter to you without anyone discovering this most shocking correspondence between an unengaged man and woman.

Indeed, only my duties to friendship would stop me in any future endeavour I may have had regarding your ship. You have my word, sir. However, you must know that I find your inconsistency reprehensible. I can now see even more plainly the littleness that there is to you. A real gentleman would never have gone back on his words no matter the circumstances. I secured an apology letter to Mr Lee from you when I fired your gun in the centre of that hedge.

Now that we have a renewed understanding, when is Mr Lee due to receive your letter of apology?

Farewell,

Lady Tenten

P.S. Address your answer to Mr T. Shosoryu at the address on the envelope and it will find itself to me.

* * *

**LETTER FROM MISS HANABI HYUUGA TO LADY HINATA**

My dear sister,

I have heard the most gruesome rumour at my finishing school. Mr Akimichi is one of the girls' fiancé and he is also part of the navy, although under a different command as our dear Cousin. Nonetheless, he has intelligence of Neji escorting Lady Morino to a carriage at the harbour before he departed for his mission. Because Mr Akimichi knows our cousin's respectable manners, he assumed they were married! As you can imagine, I lost my composure then. The gentleman apologized for his forwardness when he saw the strong impression his words left on me, and he refused to say more. He blushed even further when I revealed that Neji was unmarried. The humiliation I felt! I had to insist for more details on this curious account while my friend, naturally already in confidence of the tale and agitated by my reaction, called for salts. The missing piece of the tale was that Lady Morino agitated her handkerchief at Cousin Neji and she was wearing his cloak!

After the ruckus this maddening woman has caused at the ball last week, I can only fear for the worst. I had surprised a look of something akin to admiration in our cousin's eyes, but I couldn't be certain of his heart then. With this intelligence I can now see what has been missing from her their disappearing in the garden together and what followed: an attachment none of us suspected.

Could you imagine the shame of such a match? The daughter of a commoner with our cousin, a pure-blood gentleman? No matter who her mother is, her birth is of obscure circumstances through her father. Pray tell, who is the Morino family compared to the Hyuuga House? I will not suffer this humiliation as I'm certain you would agree, it would taint any future prospects we may have.

Before this reaches Father's ears, I urge you to write to cousin Neji and ask him to end his association, regardless of its nature, with Lady Tenten.

Yours sincerely,

Hanabi

* * *

**LETTER FROM THE EARL HIASHI HYUUGA TO CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA**

Nephew,

We have not always been in each other's confidence and it pains me to reconsider some of our past differences following your father's death. As I write this letter, know that I have nothing but the most tender filial obligations in mind, and for this reason I must arm my heart with severity.

Many of our acquaintances have reported to me a rumour that I believe could only be fraudulent. However, Hanabi's recent letter to Hinata now makes me ponder that there may be some truth to it. You would without a doubt know of what I'm referring to at this point: the understanding that exists between Lady Tenten Morino and yourself.

Under any other circumstances surrounding her birth, I would have congratulate you for such a match. However, the Lady is not the daughter of a gentleman. She is the daughter of a commoner who married into the aristocracy and who has no other choice but to use his wife's title to navigate through society. I agree that I could forgo such circumstances as means of my disapproval for your happiness had it not been for my knowledge of Lady Tenten's character. While she certainly is an accomplished young lady in par with her rank, she has demonstrated over and over again, and in the most scandalous ways, that she belittles genteel behaviour and doesn't govern herself with propriety.

I was once in attendance at Lady Tsunade's ball, and Lady Tenten played the most exquisite piano forte piece to entertain us. A gentleman (who I will not name for his own discretion) offered her the compliments appropriate for the circumstances. Any genteel woman would have accepted such compliments and the acquaintance that would naturally follow. I can still quote Lady Tenten's response as it has shocked me and the few others who were within earshot: "I will not do you the favour of accepting your compliments, sir. Only a horse would, as it cannot respond and must follow whoever holds the bridle." This ungraceful behaviour was never explained and no amount of good humour provided by myself and the other Lords in attendance could dispel the profound trouble she caused in this gentleman. He left the party shortly thereafter.

As I share this anecdote with you, you must understand that the Lady's outrageous behaviour at the ball the other night was not a limited to one instance. She speaks openly of sex and social classes inequalities as if such things were not perfectly natural to the world's order. She once asked Lord Uchiha if she could join the men after supper to drink and smoke. Had it not been for her rank and her mother's direct relation to the King, she would have been shunned from society when she was first introduced.

I have spoken plainly about my feelings toward any association our family may have with Lady Tenten. I hope you will see the truth in my words and reconsider the match. My daughters call you brother, and this match has the potential to influence both of their futures. As long as they are not secured in a household, I could never allow you to marry such a woman who, I believe, is your inferior in every right.

Lord Hiashi Hyuuga

* * *

**LETTER FROM CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA TO LADY TENTEN**

Lady Tenten,

I have received the most astonishing letter from my uncle giving strong objections to an engagement I had no knowledge of. He was informed by my cousins and other acquaintances that vows have been exchanged between us. I would be forever grateful if you were to dispel such rumours. I'm afraid my letter won't be enough to temper the vivid impression you have made at the ball last week, nor the ones you made in the past.

Sincerely,

Captain Neji Hyuuga

P.S. Is there then no bound to your impropriety and scheming?

* * *

**LETTER FROM LADY TENTEN TO CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA**

Captain Hyuuga,

You've seen me dressed as a man and shoot from you gun "despite the inferiority of my sex". As such, you ought to know that I do not blush easily. Despite my mortification after reading your letter, it doesn't astound me that from our wager, bystanders have chosen to see amiable banter and flirtation rather than my being superior to you. Their views and manners ought to be as limited as yours to reach such conclusions. If your words hadn't offended me more than once, I would have done you the honour of excusing you by attributing these limitations of the mind to your sex.

I shall call upon my friends and other members of polite society to clarify the state of affairs between us: I won our wagger, and you are inferior to me in both aim and grace.

I still expect a full and sincere apology to Mr Lee for the humiliation he suffered by your hand as our wager dictates. Please enclose your letter with your answer, so I can be satisfied. I will not suffer further delay on your part.

May your ship not sink until then, despite my having set my womanly foot on it.

Forward my love to my father if you happen to be within the Admiral's circle despite your talentless weapons handling. If I knew you to be charitable, I would suggest you ask him to train your aim. After all, he is the one who trained mine.

Lady Tenten

P.S. No.

* * *

**LETTER FROM CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA TO LADY TENTEN**

Lady Tenten,

Find enclosed the letter you requested.

Your words are as outrageous as your character.

In the wake of the rumours circulating about us, the discovery of our correspondence would only lose us both. I do not share your assurance in your "Mr Shoshoryu" persona and I am most anxious in dispelling the rumours. Let us stop our correspondence.

Captain Neji Hyuuga

* * *

**LETTER FROM CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA TO MR ROCK LEE**

Lee,

It has come to my attention that I've been disgraceful to you in both words and actions. I apologize for the harshness which has tainted our last meeting. It was ungraceful of me to suggest your business endeavours to "be ludicrous" or for the way, I accepted to loan you money with utter disdain. We have been long-time friends and yet, I did not see the hurt I have caused you until Lady Tenten made it abundantly clear to me at my uncle's castle and on my ship before I departed. While I disagree with many of the Lady's views, I will do her the justice of proclaiming her fondness of you boundless and as pure as her character.

When we meet again, I hope we can be once more close friends.

Yours sincerely,

Neji

* * *

**LETTER FROM LADY TENTEN TO MISS INO YAMANAKA**

Ino,

I forward with this letter a copy of Captain Hyuuga's apology to Mr Lee. I wish I could finally say that ruining my dress would be worth it, but look at this sentence: "While I disagree with many of the Lady's views, I will do her the justice of proclaiming her fondness of you boundless and as pure of her character." The rake is mocking me! I believe Mr Lee to be too amiable to see the treachery of these words. Tho', the letter would undoubtedly soothe his hurt feelings and strengthen their friendship. For my part, I'll never forgive Captain Hyuuga and I'll fire from his gun another thousand times until he stops seeing women as mere pieces of furniture. I wish I could finally teach him a lesson he could never forget.

(If, upon reading this letter, you realize Lord Shikamaru has called your character "pure", break off your engagement immediately. Only a man who believes a woman non-sentient calls her pure.)

My mother seems to be strangely satisfied lately. Henceforth, she exits the room while I write my correspondence. Twice now, I have surprised her looking at me with a vague smile that frightens me. She has certainly persuaded the neighbour's footman to accept my hand by increasing my dowry. It is a mystery how she has not learnt of my presence at the harbour.

Call on me when you are back in town. The days are lonely without you. Lady Hinata wouldn't admit it readily, but I believe her father has ordered her to cease all association with me. Since our last meeting, her replies to my letters and invitations, although polite, are cold and stiff, much unlike her character. They are most likely dictated by Lord Hiashi.

If this is the price of my spinster's life...

Yours truly,

Tenten

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_**Thank you for reading! Happy Tenten Week! :D Please take the time to let me what you thought. Cheers!**_


	2. The Scandalous Engagement

_**It has come to my attention that many have drawn parallels between this story and Pride & Prejudice. I actually began writing this after reading Lady Susan by Jane Austen. From the summary of the book, I thought I would encounter a scandalous lady that didn't care about what society thought of her. Lady Susan read, instead, as a heartless and manipulative woman who would throw her own daughter under the bus if it meant she could remarry well. I began this story because I wanted a scandalous lady, but one that didn't make me want to punch a wall and scream in a pillow.**_

**_ALSO: It was hinted at in last chapter, but Tenten is Ibiki's daughter. That's my fav headcanon, so I'm shamelessly pushing it in this story. Sora is a OC and Tenten's mother. Because I can do that._**

**_That's it! Enjoy!_**

_**To Ten: Thank you for your review! :) Hope you enjoy this chapter too!**_

_**To Justbeplatonic: HUGE JANE AUSTEN FAN HERE TOO huehuehuehue! Thank you for your review! :D**_

_**To Chisa Chispa: I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for your review! :))**_

_**To twinquies****: Please, let me know if you didn't receive my PM. I've been having some issues lately... -_-**_

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**LETTER FROM LADY TENTEN TO CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA **

Captain Hyuuga,

I could not let our correspondence cease while I feel so "pure" in our arrangement.

As agreed, I have visited friends and acquaintances with my mother to give strong arguments against the rumours circulating about us. Lord Uzumaki had the sense of proposing to the natural daughter of a doctor from the New World which greatly aided our cause: These news are most scandalous. Know, sir, that I share this intelligence with you because I am charitable enough to wish to entertain your lonely days at sea with frivolities.

I have also learnt through my father's men and Mr Lee that you were quite the rascal in your youth. I am most satisfied by this knowledge. I must indeed appear "pure" compared to your most indisciplined behaviours. If we were friends, I would ask for a complete account of the battle of the Bay. Such a shame, I cannot suffer your ego.

Adieu,

Lady Tenten

* * *

**LETTER FROM CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA TO LADY TENTEN**

Lady Tenten,

Thank you for taking care of our affairs. This coincides perfectly with my last stop on land. I did not want to find myself fraudulently attached to a woman whose father decide my fate at sea.

It is most astonishing that with your wits and manners, you would be affected by my past indiscipline. Am I not then the man who handed a loaded gun to a woman at a ball? Am I not the one who suggested you fired at the hedge in the garden? My Lady, you are so engrossed in your own schemes, you scarcely recognize any scandals besides the ones of your own makings. Upon my word, there will come a day where you will sorely regret your ways as I did mine.

I am certain England is safer if I do not give you any further ideas by discussing my naval victories.

We may not be friends, My Lady, but you are most entertaining. You almost write like a man. I am only terrified you may one day decide impersonate me with the cloak you still have in your possession.

Captain Neji Hyuuga

* * *

**LETTER FROM LADY TENTEN TO CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA**

I almost respected you 'til this last jest. I would return the insult if I thought being a woman was indeed an insult.

All things considered, I knew I was in my right to keep your cloak as a war trophy.

Lady Tenten

* * *

**LETTER FROM DUCHESS SORA MORINO OF REDWOOD TO DUKE IBIKI MORINO OF REDWOOD**

My love,

We have an understanding only few couples share about our lifestyle and our daughter. While we have agreed on her education being as eclectic as we are, I have always maintained the notion that Tenten ought to marry. Her recent behaviours have pushed many to blush in my presence and even more so, in hers. I have born these scruples the same way I have born the scandal of our marriage. I tell you this, because I keep no secrets from you, and it has come to my attention that Tenten has been corresponding with Captain Neji Hyuuga since the ball. I can only assume their engagement will become known to us upon his return. This secretive engagement would wound my motherly instinct if not for the knowledge that that a long engagement with a military man is unwise. As for you, I know you view Captain Hyuuga, as any man, to be unsuited for our daughter. I thus remind you of our understanding and deep affection for one another: Tenten will marry before next season.

Ibiki, I shall be as blunt and crude as you, so there is no misunderstanding between us: do not ignore my will and hand my invitation to Captain Hyuuga joined to this letter. I did not suffer through childbirth to see my daughter remain unmarried and childless.

With all my love,

Sora

* * *

**LETTER FROM DUKE IBIKI MORINO OF REDWOOD TO DUCHESS SORA MORINO OF REDWOOD **

Little bird,

We do have understanding which you seem to bring up constantly since our daughter's introduction as if I were senile. However, I do not view Neji Hyuuga as any man. I view him as the man who has disobeyed two direct orders from his superior officers. He was so undisciplined when he first enrolled that many officers asked me if they could throw him overboard. Had it not been for him winning strategic battles and his family crest, he would have been dismissed from the navy altogether. I now regret no one has taken upon themselves to leave him stranded on an island. Hear me well, woman, I will not have my daughter marry a man that doesn't respect orders and military hierarchy. This tells me more about his character than anything else.

Because I know your sensibilities are akin to a lion and that you would rip through flesh to get what you want, I have relieved Captain Hyuuga of his duties for the time being, so you can dispose of him as you see fit. I have enclosed his answer to your invitation. I strongly advised the Captain to refuse you. He folded like a wet shivering dog, and for a moment, I thought he would swoon like that cousin of his. Do you truly wish for a wimp as a son-in-law? I asked for his correspondences and I immediately recognized our daughter's hand. The little rascal stammered endless assurances that no understanding exists between Tenten and him. He should have looked at me in my eyes and say: "Yes, sir, I court your daughter." I won't say the Lord's name in vain because I know it displeases you, but find Tenten another match if you absolutely wish to see her married. Anyone among my men would be better suited than Captain Hyuuga.

I will be home next month. Meanwhile, do not worry about Tenten's future. We have trained her like a soldier. She will survive with whichever match she ends up accepting, whether she eventually shoots him in his sleep or not. She knows how to dispose of a corpse, and we have enough land to hide it.

All my love to you and Tenten.

Yours truly and forever,

Ibiki

* * *

**LETTER FROM CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA TO LADY TENTEN**

Lady Tenten,

The Admiral your father came to my cabins to-day and gave me a letter containing your Mother's compliments as well as an invitation to attend to your party on my way back to the Hyuuga castle. He asked for my correspondence and I couldn't refuse him. The Admiral insisted I refuse your Mother in the letter you will find joined to this letter. Despite my assurance that no vows exist between us, he relieved me of my duties for the time being. I knew our correspondence would be discovered despite your wicked assurance. I shall be in town in two weeks.

I know you like shocking the crowd with your demonstration of gun proficiency and by boarding a ship of the Royal Navy dressed in man's clothing, but this misunderstanding costs me dearly.

I believe you owe me an explanation and an apology for the trouble you've caused me with your most unladylike behaviour. I will call on you at my arrival.

Captain Hyuuga

* * *

**LETTER FROM MISS INO YAMANAKA TO LADY TENTEN**

Call on me directly when you read this, Tenten. My heart may explode in my chest if you do not. Is my most loyal friend hiding a secret engagement from me? Come soon!

Ino

* * *

**LETTER FROM LADY TENTEN TO CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA**

Captain Hyuuga,

I gave this letter to the first post in the hopes it reaches you before you arrive to town.

I do not know how my parents came to be aware of our correspondence, but you, sir, are to blame I am certain. From your letter, Mr Lee assumed we were in each other's confidence, and the chatters I had managed to dampen began circulating once more. I will not apologize to you because the fault resides entirely on you for admitting on my being on your ship and calling my character pure in your letter. What other conclusions was Mr Lee to draw if you speak of a "pure" woman like me boarding your ship?

The situation is now dire. Our grotesque "love story" has appeared in the papers with our initials as pretexted anonymity. They related the tale of an impossible love across social classes and against parental blessing. Even my closest friend believe this sordid story! In the last week alone, His Excellency your uncle has called several times on my mother. Because of his disdain for me and my mother's wedding to the Admiral my father, his strong objections persuaded her to give us her absolute support. Even your letter refusing her has been used to excite His Excellency's temper.

Please, sir, do not call on me at my parents' estate. I fear my mother may entrap you here only to serve the purpose of attracting your uncle's wrath. Call on Lord Shikamaru Nara and I shall be there for tea, so we can discuss in peace. Both his fiancée and he are in my confidence.

Sincerely,

Lady Tenten

PS.: Know, sir, that if I weren't most concerned for my future and reputation, I would have replied in a more unladylike fashion at the liberties you have taken in addressing me. We will never be well acquainted enough for you to speak to me as if I were a child. May you understand this if not that women are not akin to children in sense and responsibility.

* * *

**LETTER FROM CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA TO LADY TENTEN**

Lady Tenten,

I quit your company in the most agitated state. Now that I have read your letter that may have saved us this embarrassing visit to your family's estate, nothing can undo my unease. I fear for my honour, my rank and my character. I fear you most of all as you had drawn me in an improper exchange of letters. I admit, Madame, that I could not find in my heart means to refuse you; you discuss well and your wits were for too long my only entertainment aboard my ship.

If I were a more selfish man, My Lady, I would directly cite your Mother's approval of me and my future title and fortune, and make you a formal offer, if only to restore my honour. I have acted towards you in the most improper manner by beginning this correspondence and by selfishly pursing it against my moral inclinations. I shall be blunt, as I cannot be sentimental: if you wish for an offer, let me know presently and I shall call upon you and conduct myself as I should have. I will assume the consequences of our actions.

Captain Hyuuga

P.S.: Any liberties you feel I may have taken with you were unconsciously done, I assure you. I had little time and too much was at stake. Forgive me, My Lady.

* * *

**LETTER FROM LADY TENTEN TO CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA**

Captain Hyuuga,

All is lost and I write to you in a way that is certain to be intelligible to you for I cannot stop crying with rage and ruining the ink.

I deeply regret my letter couldn't reach you before you called on me at my parents' estate. We couldn't exchange more than a few words because of the society we found ourselves in, but the pallor of your face, your brisk manners and the few words you uttered were enough to convince all of the ladies and gentlemen in attendance that we have an understanding. They attributed your singular behaviour and my own faintness to disappointed hopes.

No word, no gesture from me appears to be enough in soothing everyone's passion about our pretended engagement. I do not believe in fate, as I am certain a military man such as yourself do not, but I feel like there's an irresistible force that draws me to you, but it's all consuming, all exhilarating. It's both anger, hopelessness and happy excitement. Mayhaps this is what you meant, sir, when you said I would regret anything scandalous about my actions. Truth be told, I would. I would regret everything that pulled me to you if it weren't for Mr Lee's friendship. It remains that I feel hopeless and estranged from my own life. I imagine this is how one would feel when drowning.

I will not address the last part of your letter as it is one of the reasons why I feel such rage and agony at the moment. I have no will to endure propriety and a man who views the recovery of his honour as more pressing than my happiness. While you lament yourself over such pitiful emotional states, sir, I have decided to retire to a house we own outside the country. I have already prepared my trunk for the journey and I shall speak with my parents at once. If you were to remain in town, everyone should finally be convinced that if an understanding existed between us, it does not anymore.

Farewell my fake and most grotesque fiancé,

Lady Tenten

* * *

**LETTER FROM DUCHESS SORA MORINO OF REDWOOD TO THE EARL HIASHI HYUUGA**

Your Excellency,

Servants have reported to me that Lady Tenten has prepared a trunk of clothes and jewelry in her apartment. I possess a double of a key to her apartments and saw for myself that it was indeed the case. Among her things was also one of your nephew's cloak. I believe our feud should cease for the sake of our families' honour. Give Lady Tenten and Captain Hyuuga your blessing, and I shall arrange the wedding for spring. I will not have my daughter elope with your nephew. There is little doubt for me as to whom is to blame for this dreadful current state of affairs.

I also require you give your nephew some of your lands before the wedding. My daughter's dowry is substantial, and she will not suffer want because your nephew is poor until you pass.

Sincerely,

Duchess Sora of Redwood

* * *

**LETTER FROM CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA TO LADY TENTEN**

Lady Tenten,

I asked my cousin to give this letter to a servant in the hopes it may, by some scheme, find itself to you.

I've been told that you were locked in your apartments and forbidden to receive any visitor. My uncle and your parents are convinced we planned to elope because of the trunk you prepared. For this reason, I found myself in similar predicaments as yours. Your father has officially relieved me of my duties and stripped me of my rank, which has done nothing but excite my uncle's most violent temper.

My cousins have related to me that our families are discussing your dowry and my inheritance, but have yet to come to an understanding.

I write to you now only to ask a favour from you: Forget me. Burn all my letters. Never write to me again.

You are a tempest. You are the deepest waters. You are not drowning, My Lady, you are drowning, smouldering me.

How I wish you had never fired from my gun.

Your bullet that found itself in the centre of the sculpted hedge at the ball had ricocheted in all aspects of my life. My future, my fortune, my family, they are all riddled with holes because of you. In more ways than I can ever forgive nor forget, you have shot me a thousand times over. You have killed me a thousand times over. You've utterly, irrevocably ruined me.

Adieu,

-N

* * *

**LETTER FROM LADY TENTEN TO MISS INO YAMANAKA**

My dearest friend,

I apologize if this short note angers or frightens you in the wake of the rumours which are bound to abound. When you read this, I will be far away and all my connections in England severed. I cannot bring myself to give you the explanation you deserve for my heart is shattered. There is truly no words to explain my anguish. I can only wish you will understand my retirement from English polite society in time.

I wish you all the best.

Farewell,

Tenten

* * *

**LETTER FROM LADY TENTEN TO DUKE IBIKI MORINO OF REDWOOD**

Papa,

You once instilled in me we can never take back a fired bullet. I finally see what you meant.

The situation between Captain Hyuuga and myself is such that we have now caused everyone around us great pain. The Captain lost his rank. I lost my freedom and caused terrible anguish to my mother. I can, quite easily, see how the disagreement between Mother and you about my future is weighing on you both and poisoning the affection you have always shared. Captain Hyuuga's family has suffered similar fate and estranged the nephew and the uncle once more. I want this feud to end. I have severed my engagement with Captain Hyuuga, and we have agreed to correspond no more. I wish to retire to the home where I was raised. There, I will submit to polite society with grace and propriety in the hopes of attaching a more appropriate match as both Mother and you wish. I only ask in exchange that you reinstate Captain Hyuuga on your fleet. I know you find the Captain undisciplined and untrustworthy, but I trust his words, and now I ask that you trust mine: there will be no more letters exchanged between us, and we shall never meet again.

I truly never wished to cause Mother or you any grievance. Please, come back home when you receive this letter. Mother and I both miss you dearly.

Your favourite and only daughter,

Tenten

* * *

_**The next chapter will be written in prose.**_

_**Thank you reading! Please, take the time to let me know what you thought in a comment. :D**_

_**Stay safe! Stay healthy, you guys!**_


	3. The Destitute Nephew

_**I've nothing to say for myself except that this is getting longer than expected. **_

_**To Ten: Thank you for your review! Just know, they will work out huehehueheu ;)**_

_**To Justbeplatonic: No Regency written piece is complete without a dreadful first proposal. It is just how it is. :P Thank you for your review!**_

_**Note 1: I thought I wanted to write exclusively in prose for these remaining chapter, but I went from a mix of letters and prose. Hope it isn't too confusing. ^_^'**_

_**Note 2: I completely messed up Hiashi's title. "Count" is the equivalent of an Earl in British aristocracy (although the feminine equivalent is Countess? The more you know...) Previous chapters have been edited in consequence. My bad. This is what I get for reading the Count of Monte Cristo. Lol**_

* * *

**LETTER FROM THE EARL HIASHI HYUUGA TO CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA**

Nephew,

Many times before, we have discussed the matter of your inheritance. I solicit your sense of duty to recognize your failures to observe the strict decorum one would expect from a future Count. It pains me to call forth your sense of duty as you have neglected it before, and now once more. I have forgiven you when you enrolled in the Royal Navy, as I know a man is as obliged to His King as to his family. However, your recent behaviour, especially when Lady Tenten was concerned, has led me to believe your interests are not aligned with our family crest. Many of my peers still do not meet my eyes and I have seen my presence refused in some gatherings. The shame you've cast upon your cousins and me fills me with rightful rage. For these reasons, I cannot forgo your misgivings this time.

I believe the best course of action for you is to relinquish your inheritance in favour of Hanabi.

Enclosed are the documents for you to sign.

Adieu,

Lord Hiashi Hyuuga

* * *

The door closed firmly behind the butler, Mr Iruka Umino.

The wind hissed.

Captain Neji Hyuuga waited in front of his uncle's manor, twisting his hat between his hands. He paced. He kicked at the gravel, his shirt soaked through from his journey and cold sweat. His skin pulsed, uncomfortable, all of him knotted and tightening as he waited. Twisted and gnarled, he waited, in the cold, in dread.

Mr Umino reappeared moments later, and Neji stopped pacing.

He paled.

Mr Umino bowed, his gaze avoiding his. His airs had darkened. His usual cordial demeanour, while respectful, was carefully brisk and cold, as if he was addressing a stranger. Neji stared at Mr Umino hard, swallowing with difficulty.

"I apologize, sir, but His Lordship is not disposed to receive you. He has instructed me that I could take documents from you if you had signed those he sent you."

"I was born here," Neji said dully, and he tasted bile.

The cold gnawed at his bones.

He was a stranger in his own home. He couldn't help but blame himself as he had never thought of the estate as home until now, until its entrance was denied to him.

"I truly apologize, sir," Mr Umino bowed again, his hands firmly clasped behind his back.

"Lady Hinata..." Neji clenched his jaw, his hat stilling in his hands. His voice thinned: "Would she also not receive me?"

"Lady Hinata is already gone to Wales with her husband, sir."

Neji nodded to himself, and involuntarily he looked up with the same manner he did as a child. He sought birds. He sought solace. Yet, the birds were long gone to the South; no creature croaked or chirped back at him. Autumn had turned the bark of the trees grey, uninhabited, and their branches shook aimlessly in the breeze.

"Very well, then..." Neji muttered through blanched lips.

He put his hat back on and spun on his heels. Gravel spilling and screeching under him, Neji wished he could once more feel the sway of the sea until his heels. There was an uncertainly to the sea and shifting winds. Fate. No, fate didn't exist at sea, but it ruled lands with a stiff hierarchy of men.

His uncle was all powerful; He could deny Neji entrance in his own home. Here, there was little uncertainty about his fate. Here, there was little uncertainty about his being cast out once more.

"Sir?" Mr Umino called after him.

Neji turned his head back toward the steward. His hands twisted.

"I hope... I hope you'll be well, sir."

Neji's gaze darted to the highest window of the Northwestern façade of the manor. The curtains of his uncle's study moved.

His anger flared at the base of his neck and imploded in his ears. Deafened, he stepped back. He glared up, his neck corded, the pressure in his skull, building.

Nothing moved now.

There was little uncertainty.

With one last look, Neji inclined his head to the servant boy still holding the bridle of the horse. The young man watched him with widened eyes, biting down his lips. Neji mounted his horse and took the bridle back.

He tugged his bridle to the left to turn his horse back, his legs tightening around the horse flank to ease the maneuver. His mount neighed.

He rode fast, his coat flapping around him. The breeze was harsh and cool against his cheeks.

Out of defiance, out of desperation, Neji turned the bridle toward the Morino estate.

He puffed out white smoke. The moist air clung to his coat, crushing, suffocating, and he rode faster.

There was no disturbance in the Morino estate's curtains, no light, or footman waiting by the entrance. Yet, his heart skipped a beat. It ticked and squeezed back to a previous moment, lost, a previous season, painful. And time slowed, the passage of trees, the branches caught in the grey light, they all paused as Captain Neji Hyuuga rode on to town to visit Lord Shikamaru where he was expected for dinner.

Soon, the darkened, lifeless manor was eclipsed and the road expanded. It was all this distant to him, until the sound of the hooves of his horse beating the hardened mud once more reached him.

On land, here, in his heart, there was no uncertainty.

The town blinked in the horizon, hard red and brown. Fog crept between houses.

Lady Tenten was still gone.

* * *

**LETTER FROM THE EARL HIASHI HYUUGA TO THE EARL SARUTOBI**

My Lord,

We left the states of our affairs unfinished last season. You should feel no more hindrance in our plans to join our children in holy matrimony. Neji has effectively severed his engagement to Lady Tenten upon my request. Your son taking possession of my lands in my daughter's name would thus not bring the disfavour of His Majesty. My nephew's fate was sealed since his birth: He shall not inherit my estate.

I shall await your favourable answer.

I remain yours respectful, etc.

Lord Hiashi Hyuuga

* * *

Neji removed his riding gloves as he was introduced in Lord Shikamaru's study. The steward quietly took his hat and gloves and closed the doors behind him.

Unusually dark, the room was stuffy with lined books and piled documents in an obscure order that only made sense to Lord Shikamaru. Neji pinched his lips in dismay.

"Neji, finally, I was most bored while waiting for you," Lord Shikamaru grinned and stood up from behind his desk.

He advanced toward Neji languidly as it was his usual manner, and shook his hand before clasping him on the back. His cravat was loose, his hands covered with dots of ink, his hair wild. Neji's stomach twisted and felt himself grow uncharitable and jealous. Despite his rank, Lord Shikamaru had attended law school and indulged in a life of study, attending society among his peers while practicing his profession in turn.

Neji had never been as free to indulge as his friend did. Like Rock Lee did. Since birth, he had been shackled to his Uncle's estate.

"The sea has then finally released you, my friend?" Shikamaru grinned and nodded slowly toward one of the chairs normally accommodating his clients.

Thanking him with a nod, Neji sat down, and Shikamaru slouched back in his seat.

"Most grudgingly," Neji replied, his smile stiffening and the lie formed easily: "With Lady Hinata's wedding, I was expected back home."

"Ah yes... I think my wife mentioned such a thing. You know how these things... interest me very little," Shikamaru licked his lips, and his voice drawled out, but his gaze was keen and sharp. "I'm much more concerned by your welfare.

"My welfare?"

"Well, yes, it is always astounding to me that any man would willingly disappear from civilization aboard a ship for months a time."

Neji felt his insides give in, rebel. Burn and burn. Again and again, his anger rolled like waves, destructive and flooring. He wondered how any man could be so free as to fully understand the nature of his enrolment in the Royal Navy. There had been no other viable option for him that wouldn't have been met by an instant refusal from his uncle.

'_And now, I've no home to come back to_,' Neji said to himself silently.

"Did Naruto tell you he was back in the country?" Lord Shikamaru sighed.

Humming distractedly to himself, he rubbed his forehead and reached across his desk for a letter among his pile of paperwork and letters. Once he found the letter, he threw it on the corner of his desk, closest to Neji. Carefully unfolding one limb at a time, he stretched his arms above his head.

"Read it if you must. His hand is still horrid."

The corner of Neji's lips quirked up.

"From your tone, I gather he did something troublesome."

"You were right... He went ahead and married a woman from the New World. He has now officially scandalized most of London. It couldn't be helped, I suppose."

"Could it?" Neji mused aloud and reached for the letter.

He quickly scanned the brief account of Lord Naruto's return, hearing instead Lady Tenten's voice as it recounted the scandal. Neji swallowed with difficulty, his mouth dry. He squinted to focus. Naruto's hand ran across the paper in loopy letters none of the masters at their school had managed to correct.

"This is nonsense," Neji said disdainfully. To himself. To Naruto.

He still held the letter. He had thought maybe... Maybe, if Lady Tenten knew of this affair, she would be known to Lord Naruto... His mouth twitched. He handed the letter back to Lord Shikamaru.

"Never mind Naruto's nonsense... He is always left unscathed. How are you faring?" Shikamaru asked after an uncomfortable silence.

"I'm well," Neji replied evenly. "I must admit that I was most impatient to eat meat that hadn't been salted and sealed in a barrel."

"Lord Hiashi..." Lord Shikamaru started, but stopped to yawn. He waved him on, his body twisted, out of reach.

"He's well," Neji finished and stiffly bowed his head.

Lord Shikamaru laced his fingers together, cocking his head to the side to observe him. Neji knew the sea had steadily marked him: his posture, his discomfort with long leagues travelled by horse or carriage. '_My thirst for freedom_,' a voice whispered in his mind. '_My buried violence, my brutality... They all come from watching the sea._' He shifted in his seat. He hoped Lord Shikamaru's sharp senses couldn't pierce through his thoughts.

"That wasn't what I meant to say," Lord Shikamaru relented when Neji wouldn't further the discussion.

"There's truly nothing to say, Shikamaru."

Lord Shikamaru looked at him pointedly, then nodded slowly.

"He'll lose in court, if this is where he wishes to make his claim," he whispered, and behind the gentle drawl of his voice, there was anger. Yet, it was nothing compared to Neji's anger. It didn't billow like the sea. It didn't raise, a tsunami, a barricade of darkness and foam. It was flat, lazy, yet fierce.

"Passing down his estate to his youngest daughter while there's a male heir..." Lord Shikamaru continued. "I've never heard of such a thing."

"The estate has never fallen to the hands of a relative. It has always been passed down directly, to a son," Neji repeated in the dull voice he had practiced late at night in his cabins after he received his Uncle's letter. He no longer received the letters he yearned for. He lived isolated, at sea, and it hadn't been enough. Nothing had ever been enough for his Uncle.

He had taken everything, and he was prepared to take more.

"_I believe the best course of action for you is to __re__linquish__ your inheritance __in favour of Hanabi__,_" His Uncle's phrase was engraved in his memory.

"He doesn't have sons," Lord Shikamaru said.

"Hn."

Neji's face didn't waver.

Lord Shikamaru nodded to himself and grinned, slow, open, as if the matter was settled.

"Let's drink. Ale or scotch. Anything that hasn't come out of a barrel. By god, I don't know why you do this to yourself."

"What would you have done?" Neji said softly.

At first, he didn't think Lord Shikamaru had heard him, but then he replied, tonelessly: "The same way kings and noblemen have always settled their scores. Hunting accident."

Neji smiled humourlessly.

"My love?" A voice shouted from the hallway, interrupting them.

"In the study!" Shikamaru called back, and he stood taller.

He reached for his cravat and tightened it. As Neji watched Lord Shikamaru smooth out his outfit and raise to his feet, he wondered when he would finally be free of those assaults of jealousy? If his Uncle did take everything from him, would it finally cease? Would it finally cease if there was no hope, no fortune ever awaiting him?

The doors of the study opened and Lady Ino appeared. She still wore her bonnet and cloak, and her nose and cheeks pink from the cool autumn breeze.

Neji stood up and bowed.

Lady Ino flushed, instinctively looking at her husband before her pale gaze shifted back to Neji. She quickly regained her countenance and dropped in a curtsy. Slowly, she peeled her gloves from her hands. Dutifully, her maid stood behind her waiting for her cloak and gloves.

"Captain Hyuuga, how do you do?" Lady Ino said coolly and handed her gloves and cloak to the servant. "I heard you were to be gone for the rest of the year."

"I had important family business to take care of."

"I see."

Lady Ino inclined her head and stepped further in the room to present her hand to Lord Shikamaru. He brought her hand to his lips, smiling softly at her.

"I hope you don't mind, my dear, but I've asked the captain to join us for dinner. You called on your relations before I could inform you."

"Of course," Lady Ino smiled and turned back toward Neji, her face guarded. "Are you alone, Captain?"

He didn't miss the implications of her tone and manner.

"Yes," he replied stiffly.

Neji almost added his cousins' compliments and regrets in not calling on her. He normally excused his younger cousins by saying that Miss Hanabi was at school and that Lady Hinata was otherwise engaged.

He didn't have to pretend anymore, he knew. Somehow, he wished he could still be their cousin or their brother. He wished they would have picked his side, as he had always picked theirs. As he had been continually forced to pick theirs.

"I see…" Lady Ino smiled tightly clasping her hands in front of her in a nervous gesture. "If you would excuse me, sirs, I should leave you to your affairs."

Lady Ino exited the room with one last curtsy.

* * *

Ino closed the door of the study after her.

She heard the soft sound of their voice rising and falling once more inside the room. They didn't mention Lady Tenten, like she thought they might.

Her hands trembled around the doorknob.

Nibbling her lip, Ino leaned her forehead against the door of the study to regain her composure. Lady Tenten and Captain Hyuuga had been so tangled in each other's life, she had always assumed they would come together to her house one day.

Ino pressed a palm to her heaving chest. Then, she straightened herself, breathing in deeply, before walking to her apartment.

Distractedly, Ino watched, her head cocked to the side, as her maid adjusted her dress. They chatted amicably about the fabric and the adjustment for an evening dress. It was from the last season, but the soft purple perfectly complimented her complexion. Once the maid was done, she retired promptly, dismissed by her mistress.

Ino sat in front of her vanity table. She pinned back a few strands of her hair. She paused, her fingers brushing her cheeks for more loose strands, her eyes on the reflection of her desk where she kept her ink and paper.

Letting go of her hair, Ino stood up again and approached her desk. She wrote until the bell rang announcing dinner was served.

* * *

**LETTER FROM LADY INO TO LADY TENTEN**

My dear friend,

I gave this letter to Captain Neji, as I cannot help but think only he knows of your current location and disposition.

It has been months since our last meeting, but I cannot find within my heart the strength to forget you. At first, your name was whispered with such conspiratorial tone and air that I thought surely, you would come back. Surely, it is only but, a jest gone too far. No one mentions your name anymore, if only to compliment the way you used to entertain us.

This is why I found most peculiar and shocking when Lord Konohamaru asked about your welfare at the last ball his father hosted. He appeared perplexed, and his father, grossly satisfied, upon hearing that your engagement to Captain Neji Hyuuga had been severed. It was the manner with which he tried to confirm this intelligence that frightened me. This dread within my breast occupied my mind. I couldn't help but allude that the marriage was to take place upon the Captain's return, despite Lord Shikamaru giving the strongest objections.

I know you do not believe in fate or instinct as I do, but I cannot shake this terrible feeling from my bones. You ought to come back, Tenten. Something terrible is about to happen. I know it.

Ino

* * *

Dinner was amicable with all the civility and propriety that friendship allowed. The conversation flew easily between Lord Shikamaru and Captain Hyuuga, but Ino barely maintained the composure and amiable discussion of a hostess. Shikamaru made no comment of his wife's peculiar behaviour. Instead, he reoriented the discussion to memories of school.

Once the servant retrieved her plate, Ino startled. She had barely eaten anything.

"Ino," Lord Shikamaru said gently, "would you entertain us?"

"Of course," she smiled and stood up as Lord Shikamaru pulled back her chair.

Smiling gratefully, Ino took her husband's arm, and Captain Hyuuga followed them silently. They walked to the drawing-room.

Still led by her husband, Ino sat at the piano. She felt numb. She fumbled with her partitions until choosing a familiar air. Her hands trembled still during the first notes. She cleared her throat, adjusted her seat. She started playing again.

Lord Shikamaru and Captain Hyuuga discussed quietly by her side.

"One of us should perhaps travel to London to visit Naruto..." Lord Shikamaru said tentatively and his gaze shifted to her.

The melody she played haltered, flat. With pinched lips, Ino kept playing.

"Naruto is many things, but he is resourceful," Captain Hyuuga countered. "His letter makes no mention of an invitation. It would be improper to impose, and surely in his quality of newlywed, it would be most inconvenient for his bride."

"You may be right... May I interest you in a scotch?" Lord Shikamaru said and Captain Hyuuga nodded. The lord then turned to his wife. "My dear, should I bring you a sherry?"

Ino's fingers slowed further as she smiled up at her husband.

"I'm fine, thank you."

Lord Shikamaru squeezed her shoulder and left the room.

Ino tilted her head with the melody, but she still played absent-mindedly, her fingers in turn too light and too heavy.

"Captain?"

Captain Hyuuga approached her.

Ino stopped playing.

"Do you know where she is?" she asked softly.

She stared at her hands resting on top of the keys.

"Who, My Lady?" Captain Hyuuga frowned.

"Lady Tenten."

From the corner of her eyes, Ino observed Captain Hyuuga's paling complexion. He faltered. His mouth worked as if he was breathless, struggling to find for the right word.

"No," he said dully, and from his emotion, she believed it to be the truth.

Ino gritted her teeth. The back of her eyes burnt. Her whole body burnt. She could barely muster the strength to unclench her jaw.

"Did she send you word?" she tried again, desperately, her hand over her pocket containing the letter she had addressed to her friend.

"I assure you, Lady Ino, if she were to send word to anyone, it would certainly not be to me."

Her heart thumped, crushed, her hand sliding from her pocket. Ino carefully replaced her skirts around her, straightening her back. She now appeared composed and dignified.

"She left because of you," Ino whispered, hurt, and briefly closed her eyes.

"Lady Ino…"

Ino swiftly turned on her seat to face him.

"I look at the newspapers and go through the news hoping one of her outrageous outings or one of her sharp comments would have made it there," her voice wobbled, accusatory. "So far, nothing," she paused, panting. "I can't help but blame you, sir."

They stared at each other, blanched, breathing hard. Captain Hyuuga averted his gaze first.

"I assure you, you are attributing more to the alleged attachment that existed between the lady and myself than what it was worth."

"Say her name, sir," Ino ordered coldly.

His gaze shifted back at hers. His lips thinned. Lord Shikamaru's footsteps resonated in the hallway, and Captain Hyuuga turned his head toward the door.

"We both know the truth, do we not, sir?" Ino whispered and turned back toward the piano, her fingers finding the last keys she had pressed.

Captain Hyuuga stepped back from her, and Lord Shikamaru slipped back into the room. The building tension fizzled.

"Cheers, my friend."

He handed Captain Hyuuga a cigar and a glass. His forehead still gleamed, pale, waxy, but his expression was once more unreadable. He brought his glass to his lips, the liquid inside it swaying and swirling from his trembling hand.

Lord Shikamaru still made no comment.

Ino returned to her piece, her notes late, her fingers clumsy, and the ghost of Lady Tenten who played most exquisitely hung over both of their heads.

* * *

**LETTER FROM LADY HINATA TO CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA**

My dear brother,

It pains me that it is only now that I've taken another surname and joined another family that I find the courage to address this letter to you.

I do not have my sister's nor your strength of character. I had always envied you both for your disposition that was so opposed to mine. I only hope that this letter isn't too late. I believe Father has accused your relationship with Lady Tenten to demand you forfeit your birthright. This is not the truth. Ever since you enrolled in the Navy, Father had consulted with many lawmakers to ensure that Hanabi inherit the estate. He has promised Hanabi's hand to the son of the Earl Sarutobi if he bought the estate to avoid them becoming yours. Lord Sarutobi, upon hearing of your association with Lady Tenten, retracted his word as he would rather not disgrace himself in the eyes of the King by offending her. It is for these reasons that rumours of your engagement to Lady Tenten has greatly agitated Father. I fear that now that your engagement appears severed, talks of this sordid affairs may resume.

As my heart is weak and my health fragile, I was easily disregarded. Yet, you have always suffered much more than I for you've been disregarded the same way your father has been disregarded, for Father's interests. While he had grieved his brother's death dearly, he had also thrived and mistreated you.

If I felt it was within my right to demand things from you, I would also ask for your forgiveness; I've remained silent and frightened many times, and now I fear you may pay the ultimate price

I shall await for an answer in the hopes that I wasn't too late. If you would do me the pleasure of accepting an invitation from me, Mr Uchiha and I have settled quite nicely in Wales. I think you would love the scenery; it is near the sea.

Lady Hinata

* * *

_**Thank you for reading! Please leave a review if you can. :) Stay safe, y'all!**_


	4. The Secluded Daughter

_**To Da: Thank you for your reviews! Glad you're enjoying it! **_

_**To Amber Millington: Thank you for your review! :D**_

_**To Wen: T_T thank you so much!**_

_**To Guest: Yeah, I go a little wild with my AUs... hahah Thank you for your review!**_

_**To Z Girls Fan: Thank you for your lovely review! :))**_

_**To Ryn: asdfghjkl so sweet of you to say! Thank you for your review! :D**_

_**To Chispa Chisa: Please don't be mad at me for the time it took for me to update T_T Thank you so much for your review! **_

_**To Justbeplatonic: Oh man, not exactly, no... *hides behind hands* Thank you for your review!**_

* * *

Lady Ino Nara was a lady of great intelligence and sensibility for all things related to the workings of the mind. She had seen what she had expected to see in Captain Hyuuga's face, and yet she was not satisfied. She stood by the windows of her bedroom, watching as the Captain hurried, hunched shoulders, under the rain to the hired coach awaiting him.

"I worry," Lady Ino trailed off as the driver helped the Captain with his trunk.

Frowning, she bent her head farther toward the window, her pale fingers holding up the curtains. Her gaze followed the coach as it raced forward, swaying and halting every time it hit a puddle.

"Hmm," Lord Shikamaru answered his wife from his writing table, in his usual noncommittal ways.

Lord Shikamaru was not as perceptible as his wife, but he knew when his opinion was warranted.

"Don't you find it strange, my dear, these circumstances?" Ino said slowly once the coach had disappeared. "Captain Hyuuga loses his rank, regains it, but his family shuns him."

She turned toward him, frowning. He stopped writing. Slowly, he cocked his head to the side, in an attentive gesture.

"I always wondered why Lord Morino would give Neji back his rank," he admitted and lazily he continued his correspondence. "If the old man was truly opposed to a match between Lady Tenten and Neji, why give it back at all? He could have sent him to another fleet at least."

While Lady Ino's mind reeled on the inner workings of men and marriage, Lord Shikamaru's own mind was preoccupied by the logical and lawful aspects of the Captain's inheritance.

"If Tenten asked for clemency..." Ino thought aloud. "Then why disappear, altogether? A lady in the middle of a scandalous engagement retires from the city and settles elsewhere for a time. It is expected, but Tenten cut off all of her ties with England... It doesn't make any sense."

Meanwhile Lord Shikamaru was whispering to himself: "I thought the rank was given back because of how easier it is to make a body disappear at sea, but Neji has come back. Hmm."

"What if..." Ino bit her lip, then delicately shook her head.

She had seen the emotions on the Captain's face. She had seen no guilt. She had seen longing and sadness. She sighed, massaging her temples.

"If Lady Tenten had retired from society in a particular situation," Lord Shikamaru was now muttering to himself, startling his wife. "Lord Morino would have gutted him on the public square."

Lady Ino reddened, blinking at him. How could he suggest such a thing!

"How curious is your mind!" she cried out. "Lady Tenten was never _that_ scandalous, and Captain Hyuuga... Well, he..." Her blush spread down her neck, and she couldn't resist laughing a little, viciously. "He's a prude!"

The Captain was uneasy in situation broaching impropriety. Her laugh turned to a sad smile as she recalled Lady Tenten's vivid description of his reaction at the harbour when he found her.

Lady Ino turned back toward the window.

"I worry, because it doesn't make sense," she said softly.

"I wonder..." Lord Shikamaru stopped and grimaced, his fingers stained by ink.

Distracted, he shuffled his letters in the right order, then looked for his seal.

"I wonder..." he repeated, waving his hand about.

Lady Ino approached him, smiling to herself, and retrieved the seal from its hiding place. She handed it to him, with an arched eyebrow, bemused. Her husband was chaotic in his manners and thoughts, but he somehow always managed to trifle through and find the answer.

"Yes, my dear?" she prompted him.

"I wonder if it has something to do with the recent fire on Willows street," Lord Shikamaru answered and Lady Ino gaped at him, confused.

'_What a curious mind he has!_' she marvelled once more inwardly.

* * *

Near a cliff, in Wales, a castle excited much gossip and speculations. The inhabitants of the nearby village knew the castle to have belonged to a dead princess whose name and lineage were forgotten. That was why when a carriage and domestics arrived mysteriously in the middle of the night, the ladies and gentlemen of the village could barely contain their surprise and excitement. They lived in a fairly uneventful village, among prim and a conventional sort of society among whom strangers were scarce. And now, a royal person had joined their community.

The most distinguished and well-bred of the known noblemen tried to make it known to the mysterious occupants of the castle that _if they needed anything, anything at all_, _they should call upon them_, but each invitation was refused and each sender rebuffed, firmly and politely. No one caught a glimpse of the mysterious occupants. The domestics who were sent to town could not be persuaded to give any information, so the masses turned to the Uchiha brothers.

Lord Itachi Uchiha and Mr Sasuke Uchiha, whose residence was the closest to the castle, were pressed for information from all sides by their peers. Never had they received so many invitations to private balls and strolls and hunts. '_Who are they?_' they were asked constantly about their neighbours. Ladies established that it was surely a rich gentleman of foreign royal lineage. 'A Russian lord, surely,' they whispered behind fans. Gentlemen did not have enough imagination to match the ladies' assumptions, but the eligible ones hoped that it was a rich lady.

The Uchiha brothers were not sanguine enough to give in and admit that they, themselves, were most baffled and intrigued by the presence of their neighbours after so many years of finding the castle empty. They were certainly never to admit that their calls had been politely declined like everyone else's. And they could scarcely explain the sound of firearms going off at various hours of the day and night, or a carriage leaving the castle every night.

No, that would not do, they both agreed. Mr Sasuke's impending marriage to Lady Hinata Hyuuga should go forth without the indication of bullets and violence and scandal so close to their lands.

Yet, there were times when suspicion and curiosity throbbed at the back of their heads. It would happen when Lord Itachi would walk along the woods separating the two lands. The thought would then seize him that the occupants of the castle were surely escaping some scandal. For Mr Sasuke, his own private thoughts and fears would arise, sinuously, when he was writing to Lady Hinata. He would pause, wondering how she would react to such neighbours with her gentle nature.

'_How peculiar_,' thought both men, but they soon regarded their neighbours with disinterest as weeks passed, and still no news arrived from the castle.

Mr Kiba Inuzuka only one man in the village who grew more interested in the castle and its occupants, as his peers grew resentful and disinterested. For, Mr Inuzuka had a nose and instinct for romance, and like a dog with a bone, he never relented in the pursuit of his ambition.

His new found ambition was acquiring the mysterious lady of the castle.

* * *

Near a cliff, in an old castle of Wales, Tenten awoke in the middle of the night.

Carefully, she pushed aside the curtains of her bed and reached for her dressing gown. She moved quickly across the room, securing the dressing gown over her night dress.

Tenten peeked through the door of her bedroom with only a candle as a source of light. Long shadows quivered across the wall and floor of the hallway, its end still lying in thick darkness.

The household remained silent.

Tenten eased the door wider open, holding the candle farther in front of her to illuminate her path. Family portraits, holy paintings and mirrors captured and reflected the small flame.

'_Oh __my __god_,' Tenten thought with irony, staring back in the dull painted eyes of the Lord. Her late grandmother had taken great pain in furnishing the castle to reflect her most devout endeavours. Had she been still alive, Her Highness would have certainly disapproved of _her_ endeavours.

With one hand, Tenten slowly closed the door after her, her eyes shifting back to her mother's rooms farther down the hallway leading to the other family rooms. She paused, straining to hear any movement, before prowling toward the staircase. With each step, the flame swayed, and the floor creaked. More saints and holy pictures and dead kings and queens pathed her way.

On the ground floor, Tenten walked past the closed doors leading to the parlour and dining room before making her way to the kitchen and servants' quarters. There, she stopped and glanced over her shoulder, the back of her eyes prickling. The late King sternly stared back at her. She gulped. '_Oh my king_,' she thought blankly.

Tenten turned away from the painting's gaze, her teeth clenched. She was the stranger in her family's home. She was the daughter sentenced to live in retirement.

Inhaling sharply, Tenten rapped at the door of the servants' quarters.

"Ayame," she hissed as loud as she dared.

After a moment, she heard the sound of careful steps.

"There is no letter, my lady," a sleepy voice answered through the door. "There's never any letter now."

Tenten nodded slowly, closing her eyes as she leaned back against the wall. She wished it was easier, to hide and bury pieces of herself. She wished it was easier to live as someone of her rank, undivided between the lady and the pauper, between her mother and her father.

And she had been so foolish. She could admit it freely to herself; she had been impulsive and arrogant, and she was saved by the notion that her secret was far at sea.

"Do you figure Mr Shosoryu is dead, my lady?"

Tenten startled, her eyes fluttering open. Slowly, she turned her head toward the door of the servant's quarters. After a moment, her chest shook with silent laughter, flecks of light thrown mindlessly across the tight hallway. The late King's stare flickered in and out of darkness, holding on to her gaze.

'_Am I dead?_'

Tenten touched her cool throat, resting her hand over her heartbeat.

"My lady?" Ayame prompted again in the silence that stretched. She dared to half-open the door. Tenten instantly dropped her hand. "Should I prepare some hot milk for you?"

Tenten shook her head and gave her a strained smile.

"Good night, Ayame," she said softly, her lips barely moving.

"Good night, my lady," the girl curtsied, stifling a yawn. Carefully, she closed the door again.

Tenten felt numb. She never imagined the price of her impudence would be so steep. Her parents would have easily forgiven a secret engagement. They could not as easily forgive or comprehend the existence of Mr Shosoryu without fearing for her future and the future of their house.

When her candle was close to dying out, Tenten lifted herself off the wall to return to her rooms. The flame gleamed meeker, paler, her shadows shorter.

'_Oh my king,_' she thought at the bottom of the stairs.

'_Oh my god_,' she thought, later as she opened the door to her rooms.

* * *

Behind the castle, Tenten closed one eye, cocked her head to the side, evaluating the distance. She puffed out white sharp air. She puffed out rage. She puffed out loss.

Briskly, Tenten motioned for the servant girl to move back with the jars. The girl huffed, her lips mouthing words Tenten was too far away to hear.

Her hand stiffened around the firearm, her heartbeat, her breath still calm, despite her choking rage, her crushing sadness.

The servant girl stopped again. Tenten smiled, cold and hard, and nodded to herself. She kicked at the frozen ground as the servant placed the jars. Once it was done, the girl ran some distance from the jars.

Tenten held up the rifle, aimed and fired. One, two, three. One after the other, the jars exploded. The smoke rose, puffed out, then rolled off the cliff.

The servant girl yelped at each bullet, her hands pressed to her ears. Silence settled over the hills, ragged by the sound of the sea and swallowed by the grey skies. Tenten panted, her chest heaving, her gloved hands tingling and burning up. She lowered her arm. Her rifle grazed the ground. She wished there was more to destroy.

In the distance, a horse neighed.

The sea rose with the wind.

Tenten whirled around, taut. She could hear the sound of a carriage pulling over the castle.

Cursing under her breath in a most unladylike manner, Tenten gathered her skirts and hurried to cover her grandfather's weapons with a blanket of wool. Wildly, she gestured for the servant girl to run back to the castle. She turned back and froze.

Her mother weighed her up coolly. The Duchess still wore her dress of black velvet, her dark hair secured under a matching elegant hat.

"What are you doing with my father's firearms?"

"Mother!" Tenten exclaimed between pants.

She curtsied with an innocent smile.

"How is our dear bishop?"

The Duchess of Redwood held up one hand to stop her and turned her head back toward her servants, waiting mutely behind her.

"Take everything back and lock it. Again."

The Duchess stared back at her daughter, her face as unreadable as always. A servant bowed and hesitantly took the rifle Tenten was holding. She let him, but she still narrowed her eyes at the way he held it.

"What did we say about my father's firearms?" the Duchess asked tonelessly.

"That they should be of use?" Tenten suggested, her eyebrows raised.

Tenten's smile quickly vanished before the Duchess' unreadable expression. She clenched her now empty hands at her sides.

"I'm bored and restless," she whispered, staring back expectedly at her mother. "It harms no one."

The Duchess still didn't react, waiting.

"We said no more firearms," Tenten added dully and turned her head toward the sea, her face stiffening.

"You'll become deaf. Or I might. No more firearms."

"I merely thought it would be a shame to let dust gather there."

The reply fell flat between them.

"Oh," the Duchess said with the same even cool voice she employed when they were discussing trivial things. "The long bow has already scared half of our staff away, and now the cook wishes to find a more peaceful household. Can I not step out of this house without your aiming at everyone within a four hundred yards radius? What are our neighbours to think?"

Tenten cocked her head to the side, still watching the sea. The waves rolled and sank back, dipped in white sunlight.

"The cook didn't appear to be bothered by my playing the harp, violin or piano," Tenten said faked cheerfulness and good humour. "He knows I'm a lady of many accomplishments. Now, our neighbours also share this intelligence."

Tenten rolled her head back and risked a small smile. In answer, her mother snapped opened her fan, a clear indicator of her displeasure. She held it tightly in front of her, immobile, gazing coolly at her daughter.

"You wish to hunt, child?" the Duchess smiled wryly. "Is that it?" she took a step closer to her, articulating slowly: "Then, hunt down a man and bring him back to me as a future husband."

"How could I do that in our current circumstances?" Tenten whispered, undeterred.

The Duchess straightened her back.

She turned her pale gaze to the servant girl hurrying back to the house. The servant girl held the pieces of the broken jars in a basket, her body bowed over it. She curtsied deeply once she was near the duchess.

The Duchess agitated her fan once, and Tenten grimaced. Her mother was not prone to loud outbursts like her father, but her temper exploded abruptly and unpredictably. There were signs indicative of displeasure, such as the agitation of her fan, but Tenten knew if the duchess were to readjust her hat or hair or tap her fan three times in her hands, the tempest would be loud, violent and take days to settle.

"How much did you pay this one?" the Duchess asked as she followed the servant girl with her gaze.

"She was happy to help," Tenten said lightly and turned away from the sea.

Her mother's face trembled, stiffening, then relaxed, impassive once more.

"Please, do refrain from making me break my composure," the Duchess said curtly. "This is my late mother's house. I should observe the decorum appropriate for her peaceful rest. As should you."

Gracefully, she snapped her fan close and slid it in her sleeves. She gathered her skirts and started walking back toward the castle.

"Now come along."

Tenten pinched her lips and hurried after her mother.

"A lady does not run," the Duchess reminded her impassively.

Tenten slowed down and grinned wickedly at her mother.

"How does a lady hunt then? Does she let her preys so easily escape her?"

The Duchess straightened her back again, a savage shadow crossing her face. She didn't return the grin.

"But you are not a lousy shot, child. We taught you better than to let anything survive your bullets. Did we not?"

Tenten bit back a sarcastic reply.

Before they reached the house, the Duchess stopped. Slowly, she took her fan out of her sleeves once more and raised her fan over her face. Tenten stilled and stilted under her mother's sharp side-glance.

"If we are still clear about the fate of Mister S., do not sneak downstairs at night anymore. The girl may not know how to read, but she may hear the name and understand how close_ th__is_ _gentleman_ is to this house."

Tenten blanched and stared down. She wrought her skirts tighter.

"The servant girl was sent away to a convent," the Duchess continued in a murmur. "This is settled."

"Yes, Madam," Tenten said quietly.

"I hope you know this all for your own good. If someone was to find out... Your father will soon enquire whether we can resume our social activities without threat."

Tenten looked up then to meet her mother's gaze, the muscles of her jaw working.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Her mother stared back at her, expressionless. After a moment, she nodded once, and the fan disappeared once more. They entered the house, duchess and lady, as if there was no shadow of scandal in their footsteps.

* * *

The Duchess of Redwood was a lady of varnish and polish who praised herself in being absolute mistress of herself. To the Ton, she presented respectable English manners, an unreadable face, hands that were calm and graceful. One would speak, upon meeting the Duchess, of her dignified airs before insisting on her hairstyle and fashion taste as little about her emotions or thoughts could ever be perceived. Yet, ever so often, the line of her mouth would tremble and shift, the thin wrinkles around her eyes would accentuate, then, she would agitate her fan, and the façade would start to crack.

While this small shift in manners was often imperceptible to those unacquainted with the lady's violent temper, Lady Tenten immediately tensed at the first sight of her mother's fan, and her fork stilled on her plate. Slowly, she lowered it and put it besides her plate.

When the Duchess was angry, it was best to be devoid of obstacles that may impede one's escape route.

At the head of the breakfast table, the admiral carefully folded his serviette, instinctively aware of this fact. In normal circumstances, the admiral was thrilled to see his wife's rousing anger as he had fallen in love with the beast first, then with the woman. In normal circumstances, his wife's anger was not directed at _him_.

The admiral met his daughter's eyes. He opened his mouth. Lady Tenten, more acquainted with being the object of the lady's anger, carefully shook her head. He immediately closed his mouth.

The admiral ventured a glance toward his wife. She was watching him with her unsettling pale gaze, her mouth stiff and flat. The fan shook once, then stilled. She didn't blink. With a wave of the hand, she dismissed the maid from the dining room.

"Are you hiding things from me, Ibiki?" she asked softly once she was certain they wouldn't be overheard.

"I'm just being cautious, Sora, nothing else. There are no secrets in this house," he insisted and Tenten tensed, holding her breath. "It's best if Mr Ebisu stays here and smooths out rough edges, and the likes."

The Duchess snarled, eyes and teeth flashing dangerously.

"You never part from Mr Ebisu."

"The things, I do for you, my love."

The admiral grinned at his wife.

"There is no other reason for you to leave him here?" she asked, and her arm moved languidly. She tapped her fan on the table. Slow and steady, then brutally until it broke. With a flick of the wrist, she disregarded the fan.

The admiral grinned, his eyes twinkling.

"Ah, you think I don't trust you," he said and reached across the table, toward her. "You're the only one I trust to take care of things, just as you trust me, yes?" His eyes travelled up her arm, to her slender, neck, to her eyes. "Little bird... now come."

The Duchess pinched her lips, unfazed. His fingers drummed on the table, then stilled, waiting. She didn't give him her hand. She had been raised at court. She knew better than to give in at the first sight of affection.

"Is the address gone?" she asked instead, and reached for her cup of tea.

He narrowed his eyes at her.

"Yes."

"And it seems like..." she trailed off, in a mere whisper.

"Like Mr S. burned everything down and fled to France once his last book was banned. That's what the harbour books show for passage to Calais," the admiral answered just as low.

"What of Captain Hyuuga?"

The admiral clenched his jaw, his own temper rising.

"He's preoccupied with his own family affairs," he snapped.

The Duchess' lips curled up in disgust.

"What a mediocre man his uncle is. The engagement is broken, and he is still not satisfied?"

"I'm still not satisfied," the admiral grumbled, and his eyes darted to his daughter.

"Hn. He would still be easier to manage if we let him have Tenten," the Duchess said delicately.

Tenten lowered her head, her heart deafening in her ears. '_I'm here_,' she thought miserably, but couldn't say it.

Her head throbbed. Her heart throbbed. All of her throbbed, even if she had grown in a grotesque ghost. She haunted the hallways of an old castle, never to be seen. She often felt angry and scared, lost as to whether she could express her feelings. Whether she was allowed to have them at all.

The admiral snarled.

"I'm managing him all right, woman. I detained him one more week than expected on his ship, so Mr Ebisu could finish his work. The boy ought to have expected some form of punishment," he paused and extracted folded sheets of paper from the inner pocket of his coat. He read from the pages: "He visited his uncle, where he was not received. He lodged at the inn, then with his friend, Lord Shikamaru Nara."

"Hn. He suspects nothing?"

"If he did, he would be gone."

'_I __**have**__ ruined him_,' Tenten thought, numbly. '_I __**have**__ as well as shot him a thousand times over._'

"I would find it distasteful to resort to these means," the Duchess replied sharply. "I would rather pay the boy than dispose of him. Do we understand each other?"

"Perfectly," the admiral grumbled and folded the pages back before slipping them back in his pocket. "I'll take my leave now. A fleet can't leave without its admiral."

Discreetly, Tenten slipped out of the room. She closed her eyes, resting against the wall outside the morning dinner room.

"I want you to go back to the manor, and make sure no rumours are circulating," Tenten heard her mother say.

"I would have even if you didn't ask me to."

There was a moment of silence during which Tenten was certain her mother had relented and given her hand to the admiral. Then, the steps of the admiral echoed loudly on the floor, followed by the lighter steps of the Duchess. Tenten lifted herself off the wall. She joined her hands and waited for the doors to open roughly.

The Duchess waved her fingers and the butler stepped forward to hand the admiral his hat.

Soon after, a carriage was brought forward in the courtyard.

Before Admiral Morino stepped outside, he spun on his heels and headed toward Tenten. He put his hand on her head like he did when she was a child.

Her shoulder shot up from the weight of his hand. She couldn't help her small smile in response to his grin. He levelled his eyes to hers, half of his towering height bent.

"When we make mistakes, we carry on, and that is all, yes?"

Her smile trembled.

"Yes, sir."

The admiral nodded stiffly, releasing her.

"Now, behave and visit the chapel once in a while just to please your mother. She keeps complaining and I can't rest in peace when she complains."

The scars around his mouth stretched in a grin, and the Duchess pinched her lips in response.

"And no more secrets, yes?" the admiral looked at his daughter sharply.

Her smile thinned.

"No more secrets," she repeated dully after him.

The Duchess and Tenten watched the carriage leave.

"This is settled," the Duchess said evenly.

* * *

**LETTER FROM DUKE IBIKI MORINO OF REDWOOD TO DUCHESS SORA MORINO OF REDWOOD**

Little bird,

I passed through town to make sure _our affairs _are still without threats as you requested. Nothing concerned me there, but something else did. I wouldn't bring this up if it weren't for the fact that it indirectly involves our daughter. Lord Sarutobi and his people spotted me through town and trapped me in the most boring exchange of empty pleasantries. While I assured him multiple times I was on my way to take care of pressing affairs, the man wouldn't stop talking. He inquired after Tenten's matrimonial status. I almost lost my temper and told him I would shoot him on sight if he thought of marrying her, that old goat. Our daughter ought to be 30 years his junior! His son would be no better match; he is young and a fool. I wouldn't trust him with as much as an ant. As I made those observations to myself, the goat had the indecency of asking me if Tenten and Captain Hyuuga had an understanding. I told him as crudely as I could that our daughter had no understanding with anyone, so he would finally release me.

Truth be told, I thought little of the incident at the time, if only that I hate those pompous earls. I know how they look down on me and incidentally, on you, and this alone, I could never forgive. I then met with Lord Kakashi and Lady Anko the following week, and I had to reconsider the entire unpleasant incident with His Lordship The Goat. (You know how our friends are the only company I can genuinely suffer in this town.) Lord Kakashi had under the upmost assurance that Lord Konohamaru had married Miss Hanabi – now Lady Hanabi. He knew this because he had handled the marriage certificate and the exchange of propriety between Lord Hiashi and Lord Sarutobi. I am utterly livid as I write this letter. That goat had asked me about Tenten's marriage to Captain Hyuuga then proceeded to steal the man's entire inheritance. Now, that goat is gloating around town, loyal to his specie; he had secured a future for his son and gained a rich daughter-in-law, and he only needed to crush a penniless boy to do so.

We have already discussed this; I do not like Captain Hyuuga for our daughter even less so in the circumstances in which you both left England, but I will murder the goat, the treacherous uncle and all members of that damned house next to ours if you allow me to. I can hardly refrain from mentioning the Lord's name in vain here, but surely you cannot dispute that it is a damned house. They call themselves earls and lords and such, but they are all ridiculous. I've met pirates with more honour than this.

I'll let you decide whether we tell Tenten about this.

Yours always,

Ibiki

* * *

_**I'm actually surprised no one has asked who is Mr T. Shosoryu. Huehueheuheuhue**_

_**Personal note: I thought a long hard time about how to say this because I don't want to share too much, but I feel like I need to share some sort of explanation for my long absence. Somewhere in June, I started to feel overwhelmed; I have written over 100k words this year, mainly for events. I was exhausted and burnt out. I wanted to take a break for a short while, just so I could reconnect with ideas that I had set aside because of all those prompts for various events I filled. I felt like I had lost touched with what I really wanted to write. Then, someone very close to me got very sick (not from covid). July and August were exhausting emotionally and physically. I was working all day, then I would drive to hospitals and clinics for my relative's tests and treatment. I had no headspace for writing. I only ask that you be a little patient with me and my updates. They will be erratic. I am often sad and angry. Some days are better than others. All I can do is promise that I won't kill any characters to blow off some steam.**_


	5. The Stolen Lands

_**To Guest: Thank you for your review! You're so sweet. TT_TT Thank you for your kind words and encouragement. I'm glad you're enjoying the twists!**_

_**To Chisa Chispa: It's normal that Mr S' connection with Tenten isn't 100% clear at the moment. I can point you to a few things in the previous chapters: 1) Tenten was receiving Neji's letters through another address: in chapter 1, she gives him the name and address for them to correspond. We now found out that Ibiki burned down Mr S' address. 2) When her servant asked her whether Mr T. is dead, Tenten wonders: 'Am *I* dead?'. You haven't missed any reveals. These were just hints, so don't worry. :) Thank you for your reviews and kind words! **_

_**To Justbeplatonic: I live for twists huheuheuehue Thank you for your review! I'm glad you're enjoying the twists! :D**_

_**Enjoy, guys!**_

* * *

Autumn dimmed the sun and stretched nighttime, and at the greatest astonishment of all, the few invitations that were still addressed to the castle were gracefully accepted. Soon, a rumour circulated: The daughter of the dead Princess had taken residence at the castle with her daughter. The young lady had been ill and required absolute retirement, but now danger had passed.

For the Duchess of Redwood and Lady Tenten, endless balls and gowns thus succeeded one another, invitations once more flowing in. Everyone had easily accepted the rumour as _God's honest truth_. They swore, as if they had seen the young lady during her sickness, that she had greatly improved in looks. Lady Tenten was sought tirelessly, as she was rich and handsome, and her mother, of royal blood.

'_Danger ha__s__ passed_,' Tenten would think uneasily, as more and more callers came every day, and she had less and less time to herself and '_her_ _most scandalous inclinations_' as her mother called them.

The pretended illness, their sudden appearance in society, the Duchess' relation to a dead Princess everyone pretended to remember, everything thrilled and attracted suitors and neighbours and other forms of polite society.

Seasons came and went, and the household had settled in a peaceful and proper routine which greatly pleased the Duchess and greatly exasperated Lady Tenten. And so winter came.

A fine layer of cracked snow had settled across the woods on their lands, but there was even little time to enjoy the view of the sea, white foam and greyish sand.

Like every morning, at eight o'clock, Tenten was roused by her maid and showed to her private dressing room. Soon, she stood in front of the mirror and was shown a dress of fine coral muslin.

"What do you think?" the Duchess asked.

"Is there truly need for another dress?" Tenten asked and yawned.

"Yes," her mother replied unabashed before sipping her tea.

Screens were unfolded and maids helped Tenten out of her night gown and into a shift. When the corset was brought, Tenten twisted and turned, gasping, her hand pressed against her stomach.

"The corset is uncomfortable," she squeaked, breathless.

"So are all corsets," the Duchess answered unimpressed. "Stop fretting."

"Is it fretting when I'm merely trying to breathe, Mother?" Tenten countered, now pressing both her hands to her chest, as her maid finished tying her corset.

The dress was then brought out of the box and Tenten was helped into it. Once it was done, the screens were moved out of the way.

The Duchess observed the dress. The skirts flowed and billowed easily at the waist, their sheer quality reflecting the glow of the sun. The short sleeves puffed below elegant shoulders, revealing Tenten's slender neck to her advantage. Satisfied, the Duchess moved her hand and Miss Yuuhi started her adjustments on the dress.

Tenten stared at the ceiling, her fingers twitching at her sides.

"I was under the impression that if one was to inquire after my assets, I was to show him my books, not my _décolletage_."

The Duchess didn't acknowledge her daughter's statement with as much as a blink.

"Hn. Do not tell your father, but this dress is the new fashion in France," the Duchess said instead and delicately lowered her tea cup back on the tray. "I have been told by my cousins that the bodice and skirts are most comfortable. The Revolution must have done the French some good after all."

Tenten felt her temper rising, a burning sensation throbbing at the back of her head. It was always difficult to interpret her mother's most private thoughts, but her words were always arranged as one would wield a double-edge sword. Tenten took it as to mean: '_This fallen king, __this stranger, __you can criticize._'

"I will be certain to send i t back to France, then," Tenten levelled her eyes down to meet her mother's and added: "through Father."

They stared at each other, mother and daughter carefully mirroring each other's hardening expression. Accustomed to the ways of the family, the servants passed between them without noting anything amiss in this silent exchange.

"Don't be ridiculous, the dress is lovely, and do not dare involve your father in this. You know how he is with all things remotely related to France. Turn around."

"Yes, how surprising considering they tortured and disfigured him."

The Duchess looked at her pointedly and whirled her finger once. A lady did not repeat herself. A lady never uttered her true intentions.

The seamstress stepped back, and Tenten carefully turned on herself, her arms extended away from her sides. Her face remained smooth, guarded, and in the Duchess' faintest wave of the finger, Tenten saw how pleased her mother was with the masquerade they played.

"Look how lovely the dress befits you when you wear it without sarcasm," the Duchess said evenly, and she turned toward the seamstress. "Marvellous work, Miss Yuuhi, as always."

"Thank you, Your Grace."

Miss Yuuhi bowed, and stepped back at the bottom of the dress to finish the last adjustments.

"Yes, you are quite right, Miss Yuuhi, the hem does requite further adjustments," the Duchess nodded, pleased, then levelled her gaze back to her daughter. "You'll wear this to the ball tonight. You should grant Mr Inuzuka one dance. Two would be inappropriate, of course. I was most displeased when he hinted that he would like to ask for a second one last ball."

"Yes, most shocking," Tenten said flatly.

Mr Inuzuka was the most fervent contender for her affections, but while the gentleman was charming in his own rights, his warm personality and easy countenance left Tenten completely aloof. She knew her mother to have too much control over herself to expose clearly her displeasure of him in the recent event of the ball. It remained that his natural inclination toward overly warm conciliation and loud speeches left both mother and daughter, deeply uncomfortable and distrustful of Mr Inuzuka's true intentions.

"As a matter of fact, I feel that I may be too unwell altogether to attend the ball," Tenten added after a moment of silence.

The Duchess feigned she didn't hear her.

"Lord Kankuro... what do you think of him?"

"Mother, are you truly so desperate to marry me off that you don't realize that Lord Kankuro is not interested in acquiring any lady?"

"He would prefer someone of lower rank, you mean? Hn. How modern of him."

"I meant, he would rather marry someone in breeches."

"Oh," the Duchess cocked her head to the side. "Why didn't you tell me plainly? You know I abhor euphemisms and metaphors."

"Everyone knows," Tenten said under her breath, and Miss Yuuhi bent her head to hide her smile.

As he did every morning, at half past eight, Mr Ebisu entered the room with a tray a silver containing the morning post. The Duchess gathered the pile of letters and looked through them. She broke the seal of the first one and read it quickly.

"We have an invitation to Lord Aburame's reception next week," the Duchess started and raised her head. "What of his son? He is rumoured to be a bit of a hermit, but I heard he has a brilliant mind."

"Do as you wish," Tenten replied dully.

"We will go. Hn." She neatly folded Lord Aburame's letter back and read the second letter. "Mr Uchiha invites us to dinner, but he's married, and his brother is sick. I reckon he doesn't have long. Hn. There is no good match in this house, and you have not been formerly introduced. No, that will not do. I shall decline and suggest an introduction first."

Tenten frowned. The endless flow of callers left her struggling to recall names and titles. The Duchess also had the calculated habit of insisting on the names and titles of single gentlemen at the expense of married men and women.

"Who is Mr Uchiha?"

"Our neighbour," the Duchess waved the matter off and reached for yet another letter. "His brother and he have called twice while you were riding."

"Ah," Tenten said with disinterest. "Perhaps they are the gentlemen I've seen on my morning rides."

"Perhaps. Their family is most unfortunate indeed. Their lands were scattered during the war, and their title is only an honorary one now. I must say, I was most astonished how the youngest brother has recently regained a fortune through trade. Quite a small fortune, it is too."

The Duchess proceeded through her correspondence.

"My cousin sends her regards," she spoke on through pinched lips. "It seems her daughter has finally given birth. A lovely and healthy boy, she says."

Tenten stilled as she felt her mother's cool gaze on her. The Duchess had been most adamant about her lack of grandchildren while her cousins had so many. Tenten touched the fine muslin of her dress and at once, realized, this was yet another private and proper fight between the Duchess and her royal cousins.

Tenten cleared her throat.

"Do we have news from Father?"

The Duchess paused, lowering the letter she was reading to look at her daughter.

"Why are you so formal with him? You used to call him Papa."

Tenten paused, feeling the crushing burdens of her secrets and the weight of the domestics' presence around them. Above all, she felt the burn of her mother's gaze. There could be no mistake. There could be no suspicion.

The persona of Mr. T Shosoryu ought to remain dead, never to be mentioned again.

"You hate when I'm informal," Tenten finally answered with a shrug, and the Duchess glanced back to her letters. "You say a lady straightens her back and always addresses those within her vicinity her with formality, civility, and grace."

"Yes, but now this new attitude of yours makes me uneasy."

Tenten turned her head toward her mother. She forced a smile.

"Mother, do we have news from Papa?"

The Duchess nodded.

"Yes. Here."

The Duchess started reading. She blanched, her face stiffened and relaxed, and stiffened again. She stood up, and paced. Tenten saw the extraordinary change in her mother's composure and felt herself growing faint.

"Mother? What is it?" her voice, her hands trembled.

"Dear God," the Duchess muttered to herself, ignoring her.

"Mother!" Tenten cried out.

The Duchess stopped pacing and turned toward Tenten. Her face once more impassible, she rearranged her dress and slipped the letter in her pockets.

"A lady doesn't raise her voice, Tenten."

"Mother, you are scaring me. What does the letter say? Did something happen to Papa?"

Tenten stepped away from the seamstress, when her mother wouldn't readily answer.

"Lady Tenten!" Miss Yuuhi grimaced and sighed when her work had quite unravelled at the hem of the gown, pins now poking at odd angles.

"Your father is well and sends his regards," the Duchess replied dutifully, but made no movement to supply the letter as she normally did. "Excuse me, I will be in my private parlour. Miss Yuuhi, please make the last adjustments as quickly as possible. Tenten, stand still for Miss Yuuhi, if you please."

Without another word, the Duchess walked out of the room leaving Tenten and the seamstress quite astonished at her unconventional behaviour.

Miss Yuuhi recovered quicker and indicated the platform to press Tenten to step back onto it.

"Lady Tenten? Callers will arrive presently and you still need to be dressed in a day's frock..."

Tenten sighed and returned to her place. She had only caught a glimpse of the snow covered grounds through the window. Soon, she knew, the carriage of Mr Inuzuka would follow the path of the castle along with other callers.

She sighed again.

* * *

**LETTER FROM DUCHESS SORA ****MORINO of REDWOOD**** TO ADMIRAL MORINO**

How utterly abject! If I could follow our shared instinct, I would tell you to cut off all of their heads and bring them to me. We do need more scarecrows in the countryside. However, there are signs of my late mother all around me in her house, and she would strongly object to such means. I simply cannot abide that we resort to our usual means to handle this turn of events. I would feel the urge to kneel for eternity in the chapel, as God is ever present in this house. Do you finally understand what our daughter has reduced me to by confining us to my mother's house?

I only require one favour from you, Ibiki: Look after Captain Hyuuga. Ask him if he wishes for me to call upon His Majesty as I am certain my uncle would not deny me anything.

I do not care how you feel about him. If not out of consideration, seek him out for our own peace of mind. You must know that for the sakes of _our affairs_, it would be best if Mr Hyuuga is content with our treatment of him.

All my love,

Sora

* * *

**LETTER FROM LORD SHIKAMARU TO CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA**

Neji,

I have just returned from court, and I can barely sit down and write to you with my usual composure. I have given my wife quite a fright. The lands are truly gone in this wretched marriage, there was truly nothing I could do. As you know your title will come with no fortune if the estate is not passed down to you. I always considered the possibility that the lands could be sold, but I thought the Earl too proud and self-righteous to resort to such means.

Your uncle also had the audacity to write to me to let it be known that if you were to give up the title, he would compensate you with a substantial sum. As your future depends more on money than lands at this point, I'm afraid I should do the troublesome thing and advise you to consider this offer. The family of any respectable lady would forgive the lack of land if the funds are substantial enough for a comfortable life.

As always, I remain at your disposal.

Shikamaru

* * *

The sea was glowing red when they left the harbour for their last journey.

Captain Neji Hyuuga was at sea leaning over the rail of his ship. He read alternatively Lord Shikamaru and Lady Hinata's letters. They shared the same cruel content: Miss Hanabi Hyuuga married Mr Konohamaru Sarutobi with the Hyuuga estate as dowry. He repeated it to himself, just as he repeated to himself that he never cared for lands.

Neji stumbled back to his cabin.

He never care for lands, he whispered to himself with more strength, in the light of his sole candle, and the sea was silent. He whispered to himself that, while a man was defined by the lands he owned was a universal truth, he regarded lands as dirt. There was the sound of rushing crushing waves incessant buzzing in his head. Dirt, he repeated to himself, burying the heel of his hands in his eyes.

Home, the sound of water countered, silent and dark.

_Dirt_.

Home.

As long as he had the sea, Neji never considered he may, one day, have no home to return to. No lands, and no home.

Dirt. Dirt. _Dirt_.

And the sea, it kept dismay, horror and rage at bay.

There was always hope in uncertainty, in silent merciless waves.

He laughed drily, silently, more tremors than humour, as he thought over the Earl's offer. Had it not been enough, he wondered, for his uncle to take the lands? Had it not be enough to deny him a home?

Now, his uncle would come for his title.

Shakily, Neji grazed his rifle leaning back against the wall of his cabin. It was much easier to blame _her_, and regard the firing the of his gun as the bad omen it now stood for.

His hand curled back, his mind cleared and he sat at his writing table to address two letters, one to his friend and one to his cousin.

* * *

**LETTER FROM CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA TO LORD SHIKAMARU NARA**

Shikamaru,

Thank you for your efforts and advice. I understand it is the wisest decision, but I shall decline to abide to it nonetheless. You can tell the Earl I will cherish his title when the natural order of the world will have him watch me from below.

My renewed friendship to you, and my compliment to your lady.

May this letter leave you in better spirits as it is written with the dark humour you have accustomed me to.

Neji

* * *

**LETTER FROM CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA TO LADY HINATA**

Lady Hinata,

Do you remember when I left for the Royal Navy? Do you remember that I left enraged? Do you remember it was the night I learnt my father took the Earl's place in the Royal Army? I blamed you. I blamed Miss Hanabi. I blamed our late Grandfather. I blamed the Earl. I was so shackled with grief and rage that I nearly killed my horse as I refused to stop on my way to the harbour where I was to receive my first assignment. Do you remember that you alone stood in the courtyard to see me off, despite the harsh things I said to you? You still called me brother.

I could never call you sister, Lady Hinata, as I don't think I would ever find peace in the ways the Earl has taken me in only to turn me away. I'm haunted by the way your Grandfather instilled in me that I was a servant boy. I'm haunted by the way the Earl carried out this sentence. It pains me to say, but sometimes, I'm haunted by Miss Hanabi and you. I see you standing by the hallway, looking down at me, and not reacting to anything that was said or done to me. They say time heals all. Mayhap what I feel is nothing, but a scar that has reopened too often, and its mark is timeless.

I wished I was strong enough to call you sister, as you choose to call me brother despite how your family treated me. I do not blame you now for what transpired between Lord Sarutobi and the Earl. I do forgive you as I do care for you as a cousin. I do care whether your husband treats you with the kindness you deserve, but I will not call you sister.

Your family has taken everything from me.

If you could find in your heart to understand me, one last time, it would be my honour to visit you when I return from my next assignment in a few weeks time.

Neji

* * *

_**Thank you all for reading and your patience! Hope you're all safe!**_


	6. The Angry Captain

_**To Chisa Chispa: Thank you for your review! I'm all for political intrigue huehue. Stay safe! :)**_

_**To Guest: I'm really glad you mentioned Neji's letter, because it was my favourite to write. I always thought Neji and Hinata's relationship was never properly addressed in canon, so here we are. :P Thank you for your review! Stay safe! :)**_

_**I guess I now write long chapters.**_

* * *

**LETTER FROM LADY HINATA TO CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA**

Brother,

I have wept with both pain and joy over your letter. In your answer, you've given more than I could have hoped for. I know how our family ties have not spared you any pain. I've never hoped nor yearned for your forgiveness.

My husband and his brother, Lord Itachi, are most keen to make your acquaintance. I've enclosed a describing of the location of the house.

Please do write to me if your time and spirits allow it.

Hinata

* * *

"Where is he?" The Admiral's voice boasted from the harbour.

The ship stilled, men looking over at each other, then shoving at each other to straighten their uniform and hat. The plank screeched under the Admiral's weight as he boarded the ship. The men fumbled on themselves kicking out the way their card games and flasks. They saluted.

Red-faced, Admiral Morino shoved them aside, walking through the crowd.

"Where is he?" Admiral Morino shouted again.

Neji looked down from the upper deck. Neatly, he folded the maps he was holding, and pinched his lips.

"Are you looking for me, Admiral?" he asked coolly and saluted.

Admiral Morino narrowed his eyes at him. His scars deepened, his face a mask that shifted and twisted. Despite Neji's higher vantage point, the Admiral was imposing in his dark uniform. He was a thick man with gruff manners, an elusive smile and a booming voice his wide range of moods rarely altered. This unusual disposition often made men uneasy enough to reveal more than they had planned to.

"Get down. Now," Admiral Morino ordered and spun on his heels. As he walked away, he shouted a couple of orders and insults to the men who had managed to do the least to mask their altered states.

Neji suppressed a sigh. He nodded to his first mate, returning the maps to him.

"Return these to my cabins."

"Sir..." he hesitated.

"I'll be back soon."

Neji walked down to the lower deck, but when he reached the bottom step, he frowned. His men looked at him with petrified expressions. Discreetly, they pointed and nodded toward the beach where the Admiral stood, his back to them.

Neji stilled, turning his head toward the sky.

Seagulls cried out and whined above his head. They projected distant fleeting shadows over the rolled up sails and the deck. Still watching them, sky-bound, Neji started walking over those shadows and through the crowd that had gathered. As he stepped down the ship, he could feel the nervousness in his men's taut bodies.

Only heavy silence followed his steps.

His heels sank in the rocky sand. The harbour was calmer in the gold light of the setting sun. Men had gathered on their respective ship for a meal, a drink and a game of cards.

With a lingering gaze back to his crew, Neji approached the Admiral.

"Sir," he saluted again.

Admiral Morino watched the horizon with narrowed eyes, the lines of his face deepened by the harsh shadows accompanying the setting sun.

"Why am I signing off your leave for Wales?" he asked and his neck grew corded and sculpted and purple with anger.

Neji's body relaxed. His conversations with the Admiral were stiff and sullen since he had been asked to return Lady Tenten's letters.

"I'm visiting my cousin, sir. She married and retired there with her husband to tend to his brother."

Admiral Morino abruptly spun toward him. He searched his face. Uncomfortably, Neji endured his stare and brisk manners.

"There's no one else awaiting you in Wales?" Admiral Morino asked slowly.

Neji straightened his back.

"No, sir. It's my first time there."

Admiral Morino clicked his tongue and waved at him stiffly.

"Let's walk, boy. Those goddamn men are watching us like seagulls," he grumbled and started walking.

On their left, the sea was flat, barely rippling with waves. On their right, the woods grew denser and habitations sparser.

"Sir..." Neji started awkwardly after a moment.

Their stroll had taken them further than he was comfortable with. His ship appeared a shapeless shadow in the golden horizon.

The Admiral sighed and stopped, feeling for his pockets.

"What are your intentions during this trip?"

"I don't understand, sir."

"I'm asking, Captain," Admiral Morino began with a raising voice, "if you are about to do something that will cause my Lieutenant to rouse me from my sleep to break you out of jail? Fisticuffs, drinking barrel after barrel, murder?"

Neji didn't falter.

"No, sir," he whispered, blankly.

Admiral Morino spat. Then, he looked at him, hard, his lip curled up in disgust. Without averting his gaze, he handed Neji his flask.

"Drink."

"Sir-"

"It's an order, soldier!" Admiral Morino shouted, his face contorting, red. "Bollocks! You lost an estate, drink like a man!"

Neji flushed, looking down at the flask thrust in his hand.

He hesitated.

Then, Neji tilted the flask to his lips taking a small sip. He pinched his lips, swaying, his throat burning. He pinched his lips tighter to keep himself from coughing. He handed the flask back to his officer, but the Admiral made no movement to retrieve it.

"How angry are you?" Admiral Morino asked roughly.

"I'm not angry."

Neji reddened at the colourful curses the Admiral snapped in response.

"Are you going to swoon?" he shouted and laughed, a mad flicker in his darkening eyes. "I'm a sailor through and through. I don't care about no manners. Plainly, I'm asking you how angry you are. Are you angry enough to make a mistake that will get your crew killed or are you angry enough to murder your uncle? If it is the first, I'll make it my business. If it's the second, I'll tell you you're being foolish and send you on your way. I never liked the man."

Neji paled. Quickly, he took another gulp from the flask, throwing his head back. He pressed the back of his hand to his mouth. His thoughts muddled, the burning sensation in his chest intensifying.

"So, which one is it?"

"None," Neji said blankly, quelling another fit of coughs.

Admiral Morino grunted. He touched his scars with the tip of his fingers, his eyes once more seeking the sea.

"I was once very angry. It cost me half a battalion. I was handsome, if you'd believe it. I never wanted for attention from women. They would throw themselves at me in ways, that if I were to describe, your virginal arse would fall off you. Because I was handsome, I could get away with anything. After the French tortured me, no one would meet my eye. They gave a higher rank, but it meant nothing."

The Admiral spat again.

"They always say it is a terrible thing for a woman to grow old and ugly, but being disfigured does as much to a man's vanity. I had murderous intents toward everyone, including myself," he paused, looking over at Neji as he stumbled backward. "Oh, sit down, pretty boy, it's not a mortal sin to speak of it."

His blood hammering against his skull, Neji dropped to the sand barely noticing the weight of the Admiral's hand on his shoulder as he forced him down.

"We're sailors, Hyuuga," the admiral continued after a while. "We go to the sea with nothing. This is how we make our fortune, but the sea takes as much as she gives. She's a cruel bitch."

Neji's head spun from the alcohol and the vulgar language. He wanted to laugh. He wanted to hurl.

"How many of those fools, do you think, have come back and found their wives had run off while they were gone? Or their child had died? Or they had a new child? They only flinch if they come back and nothing has changed."

The Admiral looked down at him, his eyes gleaming with an intense ferocity.

"I'm angry like I've been angry all my life," Neji finally answered, his voice quiet. "Nothing has changed."

"You're a sailor, what devil nonsense is this? Things change. No wave is ever the same."

Neji's mouth quirked up.

"Why are you telling me this, sir?"

"Because my wife inquired after you," Admiral Morino grumbled. "I will not reveal the amount of fretting she did over you because it makes my blood boil. She was most insistent to learn if you wish for her to call upon the King to intervene."

Neji smiled savagely, tiredly. To a man like him, raised as a servant boy, the King was a distant figure one talked about, but never met.

"What would..." Neji shook his head, trying to clear his head. "What would the King do? I would have lands that I would never feel are rightfully mine. I would still have a meaningless title."

They stared at the sea in silence.

"You gentlemen are all the same," Admiral Morino shook his head and snarled. "You ought to learn to look a man in the eye and say what you feel. 'I'm angry, sir,' is what you should have responded when I first asked you. There's no weakness in what you feel."

Admiral Morino started to walk away, but Neji called out after him. His head, his heart, pounded, desynchronized, hollow.

Admiral Morino half-turned toward him, his face darkening.

"Will you ask me something foolish, Captain?" he asked quietly.

"Would you thank Her Grace for her kindness? She was always... most gracious to me."

Neji clenched his teeth, looking down in shame.

"She enjoys the company of strays, be them orphans or drunks," Admiral Morino snorted, although it was soon replaced by a savage grin forming on his lips. "Ever since, you entered my fleet, she asked after you because of your mother. 'Don't overwork him, Ibiki.'" He snorted again and narrowed his eyes. "Look at me, Captain."

His jaw set, Neji looked up, all of him pounding, waiting, and yearning and yearning for peace.

"You may think I'm a lowly man- SHUT UP AND LISTEN!"

Neji clasped his mouth shut.

"You may think I'm a lowly man," the admiral repeated in a low voice and out of reflex, Neji opened his mouth again. "You've never listened to me and caused me so much headache, denying it would be insulting to the both of us."

"Yes, sir," Neji said, betraying nothing.

"Stay out of trouble for my wife's sakes. She's a saint of steel, and she truly cared for your mother, so she will continue to extend both friendship and assistance to you. But you don't want to wake the beast, don't you?"

"No, sir." Neji answered stiffly.

"Good lad."

The Admiral's grin stretched, crooked, and when he clasped his back, Neji grimaced, his head spinning more rapidly.

Neji's followed his retreating back with eyes for a moment before turning back to the sea. He lowered his head.

His body swayed from the alcohol, from the same old anger.

He lay on the sand.

"A sailor needs to handle his liquor better than this," the Admiral shouted, and his laughter boomed, stretched by the howling wind.

Neji closed his eyes.

"Yes, sir," he mumbled, and his hands sank in the sand, grasping at grains, grasping at nothing. _Dirt_. Lands were merely grains of sand. And they shifted and shifted.

Only there, within reach, for the briefest moment.

* * *

**LETTER FROM LORD SHIKAMARU TO CAPTAIN NEJI HYUUGA**

Neji,

I will respect your wishes even if I think they are folly. Don't you yearn for compensation? If a soldier doesn't fight for lands, then what does he fights for? As it is your wish, I will say nothing more upon it.

Naruto came to visit us. We were hesitant to receive him on account of the scandal of his marriage. Yet, Lady Ino and Lady Sakura are now the closest of friends. The whole party agreed that you were gravely missed.

It is my understanding that you wish to visit Lady Hinata, and perhaps avoid the troublesome and awkward repercussions of your presence near the Earl and Lady Hanabi. I am certain, Lady Hinata's sensibilities have foreseen this danger. Your absence has nonetheless left Naruto agitated and impulsive, as it is in his nature. He may very well decide to travel to Wales and visit Lady Hinata and you. I thought I ought to warn you of the possibility.

Shikamaru

P.S. I know this may be troublesome, but Lady Ino insists that you should forward her regards to Lady Hinata, as well as her regrets that the lady is so far away from us.

* * *

Throughout his journey to Wales, Neji re-read Lord Shikamaru's last letter before sliding it back in his briefcase by his side. The mail coach swayed, slowing and jolting, and the sea briefly erupted in front of him. Neji clenched his teeth, his knuckles tightening on the leather of his seat. He despised travelling by land. At least, he was the last passenger aboard the coach.

They reached the village in a trot, the stiff air of winter fogging the horizon. The coachman stopped the coach by the inn.

"We're here, Captain," he tipped his hat and jumped down his seat. Stretching, his hands against his lower back, the coachman shouted over his shoulder at a servant boy by the stables for the horses to be fed.

Neji got off the coach and saluted the Royal Guard sitting by the mail box before entering the inn of the village. Inside, the air was warm and sleek, heavy with the smell of potage and ale. The hostess hushed him toward a table, her face flushed with the heat of the hearth.

"Are you staying the night, sir?" she asked with a smile, her hands tired and nervous.

"No, just a warm meal, and a horse."

Neji dropped the coins in her stretched hand, and she bowed stiffly before shouting at her husband to prepare for a horse.

Neji distractedly watched the other travellers and locals sitting around him. Some play cards, others had quiet gatherings. His uniform brought distinguished bows and furtive glances.

Neji quickly ate his meal, while the host prepared for a horse. Lady Hinata had fondly described the road for him in her last letter. Nonetheless, Neji asked the host about the Uchiha household. The old man pointed to a blurry house in the horizon.

"That's the house, sir. Maybe two miles out of town The inn is quite busy now, so I'll send a post boy with your trunk to bring back your horse later. Good journey!"

The servant boy Neji had seen earlier held the bridle of the horse as he mounted. He bowed awkwardly once Neji was settled on the saddle and ran back to the stables.

Neji rode out of the village.

The Uchiha household overlooked the village, carefully nested between a dense forest, and the rocky edge of the cliff. The road leading to it curved near the sea.

The salty air reinvigorated him.

Neji repeatedly stopped his horse as he rode to the Uchiha estate. Every time he did, he faced the sea, and he waited, like he had waited and paced in front of his uncle's manor. He waited, like he felt whole and certain of the firmness of the land.

Below, the waves crashed and broke on rocks and angrily drenched the sand. Far away, a storm built.

Neji turned his horse one last time toward the road and finally reached the gate.

The Uchiha house had two wings, adorning a U-shape in the middle of tall hedges and a frozen garden. Lady Hinata stood by the entrance of the house. Upon seeing him, she waved at him, her breath clear and white around her face.

Neji pulled at the bridle.

A stable boy was called for the horse, and Neji dismounted in the interior courtyard. He handed him the bridles.

"A man will come later for the horse and my luggage," Neji said.

The stable boy nodded quickly and bowed before leading the mount away.

When Neji turned back toward the house, he glimpsed at his cousin already hurrying to greet him.

"Brother!" Lady Hinata huffed, her face flushed, and jumped at his neck.

Her bonnet receded on top of her head. His insides twisted. Neji hugged her back.

"Lady Hinata, what would your husband think of such behaviour?" Neji asked amused, and gently pushed her away.

"I'm glad you're here," Lady Hinata said softly and gestured toward the house, so he would follow her. "Come inside, we've started a fire. Mr Uchiha is waiting for us. Was your trip enjoyable?"

"I took the ship as far as I could," Neji admitted awkwardly. "I've yet to change out of my uniform."

"I'm glad..." she laughed quietly. "I know how you hate travelling by land."

They entered the horse and servants helped them out of their coats and hats. Neji then followed Lady Hinata to the living room. A dark haired man stood up immediately, closing the book he had been reading. Although, Neji suspected the gentleman had only pretended to read before his arrival.

His demeanour, while composed in appearance, turned swiftly, almost nervously toward Lady Hinata. Only once had his glance met hers, did his shoulders drop.

Lady Hinata flushed, her face soft as she pointed at her husband.

"Mr Uchiha, may I introduce my brother, Captain Neji Hyuuga."

The two men bowed to each other and exchanged the pleasantries and civilities appropriate for the beginning of an acquaintance.

"I'll arrange for a fire to be started in your rooms, and perhaps a bath?" Lady Hinata turned toward Neji. "Please sit by the fire."

Lady Hinata shyly hushed Neji toward the couch. The fire crackled most pleasantly, bathing the room in both warmth and shimmering light.

Neji immediately turned back toward Mr Uchiha to offer his compliments, but the gentleman was nodding, barely acknowledging his words. He still followed his wife with his eyes as she walked out of the room to instruct the domestics in the appropriate care of their guest. Mr Uchiha's gaze eventually darted back to Neji as he felt his stare on him. The tip of his ears turned red at being thus discovered.

"Yes, Captain..." Mr Uchiha cleared his throat. "The woods..." he added vaguely and gestured without energy.

Neji pinched his lips to keep from smiling. He changed the subject to save his host from further embarrassment.

"You've a lovely home, Mr Uchiha," Neji said and inclined his head briefly before sitting down. "Lady Hinata's description does not do it justice, I'm afraid. She's very guarded in this manner."

Mr Uchiha nodded to himself, gripping the book on his thigh.

"My wife was most happy that you agreed to come visit us. I told her..." he paused, his taciturn expression shifting with unease and embarrassment. "I told her it was too cold to wait by the gate, but she insisted."

Neji gave him a small smile.

"I'm happy to see Lady Hinata with such caring manner. From her letters, she appeared quite happy by your side."

While Neji expected the usual ripping envy at his cousin's happiness, he didn't expect the wave of sadness that tightened his throat. His thoughts led him back the sense of slipping dirt, drifting sand he senses whenever the word 'home' formed in his mind.

"As we are family, if I can be of assistance..." Mr Uchiha let the sentence dangle, watching him with sharp dark eyes that reminded Neji of his friend, Lord Shikamaru.

Because Neji was accustomed to being the poorest relation, his ego wasn't bruised by Mr Uchiha's clumsy speech. He did feel that Lady Hinata's departure from the room had come timely, but he made no comment on the matter either. Neji hadn't needed Lord Shikamaru's warning of Lady Hinata's astuteness to know how sensible she truly was.

Yet, he hesitated before replying, his gaze darting across the fireplace.

"My place has always been at sea," Neji said evenly, still watching the flames. "I never cared for lands, so I'll have a title without lands." He paused then, carefully silencing his savage satisfaction at bearing his uncle's title.

As Neji expected, Mr Uchiha looked at him strangely, but did not reply. Neji knew he must sound like a madman. Without lands or fortune, his marriage prospects and his future were limited.

Lady Hinata returned moments later, still huffing but smiling.

"I had prepared the room overlooking the seaside for you," she said and sat down by her husband.

"You didn't have to do this, Lady Hinata," Neji countered. "I have lived in most inadequate and rudimentary quarters during my service. I would have been comfortable anywhere."

"It was no problem at all we have many unoccupied rooms in the West wing near the family rooms. "Tell him, Mr Uchiha..." she gingerly looked at her husband, blushing.

Thus beckoned, Mr Uchiha nodded in agreement with his wife.

"My brother is resting now, but he was most anxious to meet you, Captain Hyuuga. He had heard of your exploits during the war through his acquaintances. He was Captain in the Royal Navy himself in his prime."

Because Lady Hinata looked at him expectantly, Neji bowed his head at Mr Uchiha to thank him and relaxed in his seat.

"The honour is all mine, I assure you Mr Uchiha," he added, and Lady Hinata pressed a hand to her chest as if relieved by the quiet friendship taking place between the two men.

"We should let him rest before dinner, Mr Uchiha..." she urged gently.

"Of course," Mr Uchiha nodded again, and reached for the bell. "I'll ring for a servant to take you to your his rooms at once, Captain."

* * *

Bored, Lady Tenten spun her dance card on the table. Around her, servants and butlers hushed trays of food out-of-the-way for the dancing to resume. The private ball was monstrous in terms of guests, the viscount hosting it, determined to marry off his own daughter by the end of this season.

"I wonder why parents are so desperate to parade and marry off their offsprings," Tenten had risked at the beginning of the night, her voice laced with sarcasm. "Is it the pain of childbirth that makes you resent us?"

"No, it's remarks like these," her mother had replied icily and touched her fan.

Tenten sighed, pinching her lips as Mr Inuzuka caught her eye and inclined his head. His wolfish grin normally drew a blush and a sharp intake of breath from ladies, but Tenten felt neither. She merely glanced away, aware that Mr Inuzuka drew his steadfastness from his frustration the way a man in love drew it from a single gesture of affection.

Tenten licked her lips.

"Mother-"

"Don't," the duchess cut her off. "Now is not the time to embarrass us both with your theatrics."

"Am I not entertaining then?"

The duchess levelled her pale gaze to hers.

"Is Lord Shino next?"

As the host approached the floor to announce that dancing would finally resume, Tenten looked down at her dance cards, weighing in the possibility of an escape.

"Yes, but-"

"And then?"

Tenten frowned.

"Do we know Konohamaru Sarutobi? I don't recognize his name."

The Duchess reached for the dance card, read the name for herself, and twirled her fingers at the servant nearest them.

"No, and you are refusing his dance," the Duchess said coldly, then to the servant: "Inquire where Mr Ebisu is, and tell him he is summoned, if you please."

The servant bowed and disappeared within seconds, swallowed by the crowd. The host's booming voice followed laughter and trepidation and ruffle of silk. Musicians had taken their place back at the front of the room.

"If I refuse his dance, I cannot possibly accept any other gentleman without causing quite an embarrassment for our host."

"Please, do no feel like you ought to hide your excitement. It is quite plain to me."

Tenten opened her mouth, but her mother inclined her head at Lord Shino in greeting. He coughed discreetly, still holding out his hand to her. She took it, her eyes seeking her mother's. As usual, the Duchess' composure revealed nothing about the state of her private thoughts.

Frowning, Tenten took her place in the line of dancers, facing Lord Shino. She forced herself to look at him, his genteel and cold manners, earning sighs from ladies here and there. She forced herself to feel a tingle of want and desire. Other ladies appeared to love and yearn more freely than she could.

As the violin started and they bowed to each other. Her thoughts returned to her mother's peculiar reaction to the name of Konohamaru Senju. Lord Shino made no attempt to initiate conversation and neither did she.

She moved with her usual effortlessness through the dance steps, but she barely felt his touch on her hand and lower back.

When music faded and they had returned to their initial place in the line of dancers, Tenten looked up at Lord Shino again, wondering what it was that she was missing. What it was that made her so different from other ladies.

She quieted the name that rose inside her.

She quieted the dread and the shame that followed suit.

Desperately, Tenten tried to smile, but Lord Shino didn't return it. He took her hand and walked her back to her seat by her mother's. With one last bow, he was gone, unaffected.

"Mother?" Tenten asked hesitantly when she saw the Duchess already wearing her fur.

A servant stepped in behind her and draped her own shoulders with her coat.

"I've asked for the carriage. Come, it's time to leave."

The Duchess spun on her heels, and they made their way through the crowd. Tenten nodded and smiled at acquaintances, avoiding the curious gazes of ladies and gentlemen. Everyone knew her mother as arriving and departing at proper hours. It was inconceivable that the Duchess would leave shortly after dinner; the gossip was likely to abound.

"You frighten me, Mother," Tenten hissed under her breath, just as the Duchess froze.

Tenten followed her gaze. The ball stretched to the library and family parlour. Both rooms were as heavily and lavishly decorated as the main room. Curiously, Tenten looked between her mother and the room, until she found on whom her mother's icy stare was fixed.

Tenten paled.

"Is that... Miss Hanabi?" Tenten asked and turned on her heels. "How could she be here?" she asked herself quietly and turned away from the scene. She squared her shoulders: "Let's leave before we cause a stir, Mother."

The Duchess didn't move. In her fists, her fan was broken, snapped in three pieces she still held.

"Next to her is Lord Konohamaru."

"Mother... Lord Hiashi's anger may amuse you, but now is hardly the time..."

"They are married," the Duchess said with cold anger. "Lord Hiashi isn't here."

Tenten turned back toward the couple, frowning.

"They seem to be an appropriate match. Why are you reacting this way?"

The Duchess' composure shifted and stilled. She looked back at Tenten and touched her cheek. Tenten's inside twisted painfully as her mother nodded to herself.

"Tenten, I lied to you,"

"About their being married?" Tenten asked slowly, but her heart, her cheek ice-cold.

The broken hand fan rested between them, disregarded on the floor.

"Last week, I didn't want you to see what your father had written."

"What had he written?"

"Lord Konohamaru purchased the Hyuuga estate in his wife's name," the Duchess said plainly, without any more traces of anger or remorse. She said it with the same voice, she would decree something as 'settled'.

"But... I don't understand if he did then..."

Duchess Sora didn't waver.

"Captain Hyuuga is left with nothing. He must be trying to dispel any past rumours about Captain Hyuuga and you if he is asking you to dance."

She meant to walk past her mother, but she was easily blocked. She felt her face flushed, her breath, her heart strident in her ears.

"We're leaving. This is settled," the Duchess said and clasped her daughter's hand.

"You-" Tenten's voice shook with rage.

They were soon stopped by the host looking at them gravely. His smile was forced, his manners polished as he bowed. Tenten looked over her shoulder at the couple. An older gentleman standing by them caught her gaze and bowed his head.

Tenten immediately looked away.

"Lord Sarutobi asks to me to introduce him to you, Your Grace. We were greatly concerned to see you were ready to leave already. I hope all is well in your household?"

The Duchess didn't bat an eye.

"Tell him I'm most displeased and shocked by his manners. Please, do remind him a ball is hardly appropriate for an introduction. It is for acquaintances to be renewed, not new ones to be formed. Send him away. As you can see, we are leaving."

She turned toward her daughter, leaving the host at loss for words.

"Come along, Tenten."

Tenten clenched her jaw, staring, immobile, at the hand her mother was extending to her. She knew there always was the threat of gossip, but she couldn't contemplate the possibility of remaining silent. She couldn't contemplate the possibility of Captain Hyuuga finding out that she had remained silent when she had once told him directly: "You have acted poorly, sir."

They had acted poorly, Lord Sarutobi, Lady Hanabi and her husband. They had all acted poorly, and she couldn't contemplate not saying ot as plainly as she had done in the past.

"Tenten," her mother hissed in her ear now. "He's an earl. Even you are above his station. You will not receive his introduction. It would be most inappropriate, and do you not see how this would be perceived? That goat."

"I know," Tenten said mutely and took a single step before stopping again.

Duchess Sora's mouth tightened, but she didn't add anything.

Helplessly looking for his wife, the host let them pass.

"Your Grace!" it was now the hostess' turn to make haste after them. As they reached the hall, she cried out after them, winded, flushing angrily.

She curtsied out of breath before adding: "You are leaving quite early..."

"Yes," The Duchess replied stiffly.

"We do not care for your acquaintances," Tenten spoke loudly without glancing at her. "There are thieves among them, Madam."

"Thieves, surely!" The hostess turned toward her husband, blanched, tearing at her hands. He returned her look of horror.

"Ask Lord Sarutobi, he will tell you how one steals an estate."

Some guests were discreetly watching the curious events unfolding in front of them. It didn't take much time before the gossip reached Lord Sarutobi's ears. He and his son gaped, red-faced with embarrassment and anger.

By then, the Duchess and her daughter were already outside, and there was nothing to be done, than to bear the whispers before planning a graceful exit.

Outside, Mr Ebisu had brought forth the carriage.

Unperturbed, the Duchess ignored the pleads of both host and hostess until the door was opened for them. Then, she turned her head, her eyes shining with a violent intensity that was akin to her husband's. It was of little surprise that both Admiral Morino and his Duchess knew how to cut down a man with a few words:

"Do not invite us again."

The Duchess was helped in the carriage, followed by her daughter.

The door shut.

The Duchess closed her eyes.

"Don't," she whispered with a tired voice.

Tenen didn't move from her position by the window. The curtains hid half of her in velvet shadows and folds. Her gun didn't waver, its tip resting against the window. It fogged up. When the carriage pulled out of the courtyard into the road and the opportunity of a shot was lost, Tenten sat back against her seat, glaring at her mother.

Her forehead and cheeks were white, her mouth dry.

She taped the gun against her thigh.

"Why didn't you inform me sooner?" Tenten managed to say.

"Your father and you, you are both so short-tempered," the Duchess started with a sigh. "I thought it would be best to give you the opportunity to ridicule Lord Sarutobi. The ton will now think twice before inviting him anywhere. Are you satisfied?"

When Tenten didn't answer, the Duchess opened her eyes, her head tilted to the side, watching her daughter. Her features shifted freely now, twisted with cruelty, her pale green eyes shining in the darkness.

"Not all wars need weapons and such, child, but you already knew that or you wouldn't have called Lord Sarutobi a thief, yes? So, why are you angry with me?"

'_We don't understand each other_,' Tenten thought miserably as she had a thousand times over.

In silence, the carriage shuddered over a bridge.

In silence, the carriage slowed and stiffened, the horses trotting on softened ground as they advanced deeper in the lands.

"I simply wonder, Mother, if you chose this 'opportunity' as you called it, to show your displeasure without directly aiding Captain Hyuuga because of the danger he represents," Tenten said when she saw the castle.

Shadows ripped through the Duchess' face. Her chest heaving with anger.

"May I remind you, daughter of mine, that I invited Captain Hyuuga in our home before he was introduced to you," she said softly, her gaze burning, but the rest of her, once more cold and distant. "I'm crossed with the two of you. You've both lied to me, and schemed. You could have both thrown away your future, do you finally understand that, Tenten?"

"Mother-"

"Silence," she hissed, and Tenten shrunk back, wishing her mother had shouted instead. She wished she had made her feelings plain, the way her father had.

She watched the Duchess fought for words, weighing them, while doing the same with her rising emotions. Her lips curled back and stiffening, when they reached the inner court of the castle.

She was painted in quivering darkness.

"You've both terribly wounded me and made a fool out of me," she whispered in a most uncharacteristically feeble voice.

Her cheeks blanching, Tenten stared back at her mother until all traces of her hurt expression had slid off, her chest heaving slowed, and the coachman had taken out the step of the carriage.

And Tenten couldn't help but hope the evening had been all a most vivid dream.

* * *

Once in her rooms, Tenten pressed a cold hand to her moist temples. Around her, servants walked silently, yawning as discreetly as they could, to light candles in her bedchambers and her dressing room.

Numb, she let the questions and quiet chatters of servants go unanswered.

"Just take it off me," Tenten asked shakily, her hands gripping at the fabric of her midsection. She felt her maid struggle with the laces, but there was no room to breathe. "Just cut it off me!" She sobbed and pressed a hand to her mouth.

The maid and servants exchanged an alarmed gaze before all surrounding Tenten to help her out of her clothes. Hurriedly, they draped her in her night clothes, the oldest of the servant leading her with a soothing voice to her bedchambers.

They retired as discreetly and quickly, leaving their young mistress to her dark thoughts.

One hour later, the door to her bedchambers creaked open. Tenten stiffened, then relaxed when her mother sat on the bed. The Duchess sighed and lightly touched her back and legs as if to ensure all her body was properly covers by her covers.

"I don't feel well, Mother," Tenten muttered, mechanically. "May be I excused from attending tomorrow's ball?"

She felt her mother's fingers gently brush her hair out of her face, then soothed her back.

"Let's not be crossed. Let's once more be friends," she said with her usual composure.

Tenten felt herself nod.

"I did ask your father to inquire after the Captain's welfare. The Captain refused my help."

Tenten pressed her face to her pillow. Her head pounded.

Her mother shifted uncomfortably to look down at her.

"Oh, you worry about your father and I? He wasn't crossed with me for inquiring after Captain Hyuuga," the Duchess said plainly and nodded to herself. "He knows how close I was to the Captain's mother."

Uneasy, the Duchess looked around her and fluffed the pillows and straightened the blankets over her daughter. Once she was satisfied, she nodded again and straightened her back.

"We won't fight again over this matter. We've been married a long time. There's truly no need to drive you in this state. We always come back to each other."

Tenten nodded again distractedly, squeezing her eyes shut.

She didn't want to correct her mother on the cause of her anguish. '_Does he hate me__ now?_'

* * *

**LETTER FROM DUCHESS SORA MORINO of REDWOOD TO ADMIRAL MORINO**

My love,

I've no secrets from you except when it comes to purchasing anything French as it is our agreement. As such I am informing you that I will scheme and meddle as far as my education and rank will allow. Our daughter has grown withdrawn, subdue and pale, and I will not suffer it any longer. She collects accomplishments at a rate that is most frightening. She has gone through all my father's weapons and my mother's musical instruments. I do not know what to think anymore. She shows no particular attachment to any young man who comes calling. Worse, she has taken after your sordid habit of vanishing whenever the butler introduces callers. In my late mother's castle, no less. Had my mother been alive, she would have had died of this display of impropriety alone.

I urge you to speak to Tenten once you return home. You know how I struggle with emotional displays, and I simply do not seem to understand her fleeting states. I told her about Captain Hyuuga's particular situation, and she caused quite a stir at the ball. The gossips are bound to reach you faster than this letter, so I will spare you the details. She has kept to her bed to-day and has refused all food trays. I did all I could to soothe her, but she cannot seem to improve in spirits.

May you come home safely.

Yours, always,

Sora

* * *

As the Duchess finished writing her letter to her husband, she reached for her seal, and Mr Ebisu appeared by her writing table.

She gestured for him to wait while she sealed the letter. She had grown accustomed to the soldier's unpolished manners, but it still took great offence in the amusement he always bore. His dark eyes always gleamed behind spectacles that he always chose to polish when people addressed him. It sent shivers down her spine, at times, the way he listened his eyes lowered to his spectacles, his movement slow, and his amused expression never receding.

The Duchess now turned toward him as she handed him the letter.

"Make sure this leaves as quickly as possible, please."

He bowed.

"I heard interesting rumours in town."

The Duchess stiffened, but without missing a bit, she dismissed her ladies-in-waiting.

Mr Ebisu waited until the door was tightly closed between the Duchess' parlour and her bedchambers before taking off his spectacles. With measured movements, he took out a handkerchief from his breast pocket and started polishing the lenses.

"Her Ladyship's neighbours have a guest known to us."

"We've many acquaintances, I'm sure you're aware, Mr Ebisu," the Duchess replied coolly.

Her daughter's welfare weighed heavily on her thoughts, and she hardly had the patience for Mr Ebisu's impertinence.

"Captain Hyuuga is here. He lodges with Mr Uchiha, Mrs Uchiha and Lord Itachi. It seems Mrs Uchiha is his cousin, Lady Hinata."

The Duchess didn't flinch. She blinked and icily dismissed Mr Ebisu with a wave of the hand in the same breath. She then reached across her writing table for her bell.

"Do you not wish to alter your letter, Your Grace?" Mr Ebisu inquired with a frown, still polishing his spectacles.

The Duchess rang for the housekeeper, ignoring Mr Ebisu's inquisitive gaze. With her usual efficiency, she gave the older woman orders for the household, then call back in her ladies-in-waiting. In a rustle of silk, they reemerged from her inner rooms and sat to resume their needle work by the window.

For a moment, Mr Ebisu observed the perfectly orchestrated movement of those attending to the lady. Even for a man, such as himself, who praised himself in understanding the delicate and frail workings out the mind, the Duchess was quite unsettling in her manners. Ignored by all, Mr Ebisu had no choice, but to bow curtly before exiting the parlour.

The Duchess held up her cup of tea to her lips, resting the gold gilded rim to her bloody lips.

A lady never repeated a dismissal.

More importantly, a lady never showed her hand.

* * *

A week had lapsed after Captain Hyuuga's arrival in the Uchiha household, when he was shown to the grounds of the Uchiha estate. Lady Hinata, Mr Uchiha, and himself walked by the cliff after they shared a cold collation by midday. The breeze was strong, but warmer than the previous day. It rolled across hay and tall grass, the scent of moist soil, fresh and strong.

Lady Hinata stopped by the cliff, holding her hat with one hand and showing the horizon with the other. The sky and the sea were vibrant blue, both crinkled by strong winds; they both foamed, wave by wave, cloud by cloud.

"It's beautiful, isn't it, brother?" Lady Hinata huffed, her cheeks pink.

As she was accustomed to, Lady Hinata waited for his reply with great expectation, her manners shy, her eyes gleaming.

Neji inclined his head with a small smile, and Lady Hinata's spirits lifted immediately. She spun on her heels, grabbing on the arm of her husband.

"It's even more beautiful on the other side," she added huffing and tilted her head toward the woods.

Neji followed the couple and both Mr Uchiha and he listened with amused expressions as Lady Hinata elaborated in great details of the work their tenants have undergone during summer and fall.

At the edge of their propriety, Lady Hinata interjected her own discourse to salute her neighbours' kindness: "Our neighbour is kind enough to let us peruse her lands for walks. All of this..." she pointed to the tightening woods, a stream agitated below thin ice and hills. "All of this, is theirs."

She looked up at her husband, and with the same demeanour Neji recognized as his own, Mr Uchiha readily agreed with his wife. Her taut expression eased, and her shoulders dropped, and she looked the happiest and most at ease, Neji had ever seen her. This both provided him with great pleasure and great pain.

"The Lady of the castle is most generous indeed," Mr Uchiha added, his voice clipped, but his body was turned toward his wife, his eyes searching hers, as if to seek, in return, her own approbation.

Neji discreetly turned his head away. The Uchiha brothers both had guarded manners when they mentioned persons of superior birth; their parents' estate had been violently ripped from their grasp by a jealous and greedy lord, Lady Hinata had informed Neji.

Smiling timidly, Lady Hinata now tapped her husband's arm with great affection, and they proceeded with their walk. Just as readily the lady resumed her detailed account of what her household hoped to reap once the weather was more clement.

In the distance, they caught a brief glimpse of a lone rider mounting a brown stallion with a black mane. The rider' pale blue riding dress trailed after the horse in the wind.

"She rides almost every day," Mr Uchiha observed coolly, his lips pinched.

Lady Hinata looked back at her husband in surprise.

"I've never noticed her before."

"Hn. I believe I told you this. She is the daughter of the Lady of the castle."

Neji purposefully fell behind, looking around him at the tall trees. Because of the couple's calm and shy manners, he considered most of their interactions to be of private nature, especially with Mr Uchiha's icy interjection and darkening thoughts, palpable.

"Indeed?" Neji heard Lady Hinata exclaimed now.

He turned away from them, having reached the cliff overlooking the sea. The waters were troubled, of a darker colour than the sea on the other side. He breathed in the salty air, and he felt like less of an intruder.

"I've never been properly introduced to her," Mr Uchiha said and Neji startled. He hadn't heard them approach; husband and wife were both standing by his elbow now, staring out at the sea, arms tightly linked.

"She was always out riding whenever I visited. It was most peculiar because her mother was receiving callers alone," Mr Uchiha frowned, and bowed his head at Neji. "I apologize, Captain Hyuuga, I have no memory for names. Surely, Lady Hinata can tell us more?"

"I can't, sir! You've told me very little of our neighbour." Lady Hinata flushed deeply turning toward Neji to explain: "Noblemen and noblewomen are scarce in the area, but our neighbour resides in the castle. We have never had the pleasure... of course... Their party appears to travel often and it would be improper to impose without an introduction. The Lady of the castle has been most kind to Lord Itachi before we arrived, however. Hasn't she, Mr Uchiha? Perhaps, we should inquire about her name with him?"

"Yes," Mr Uchiha said tentatively, seeking reassurance in his wife. It was clear to both cousins, Mr Uchiha purposely neglected titles and names of a certain class. His memory never failed him for his own people.

It took little time for Mr Uchiha and Mrs Uchiha to nod at each other, in perfect understanding that the burden of remembering the aristocracy and its conventions would fall on Lady Hinata for now on. Both satisfied and reassured in their affection for each other, they pressed forward.

Neji looked down to hide his amusement. He had to admit to himself he had been sceptical of the match at first, but they complimented each other most appropriately. Mr Uchiha's taciturnity was eased by Lady Hinata's gentleness and good spirits. In return, Lady Hinata had gained a stronger composure from Mr Uchiha's brisker manners.

"Oh, but she's stopping I believe," Hinata held her bonnet back against the wind, squinting in the harsh light. "We should greet her at the very least."

Neji remained where he was, as the couple walked on to greet their neighbour. Branches and dry herbs snapped under their weight. The ground was uneven. They moved, awkwardly, toward and away from each other. From where Neji stood he could see Lady Hinata's face flushing with embarrassment. Finally, Mr Uchiha fastened his wife's hand around his forearm.

"Careful, my dear," Neji heard Mr Uchiha mumble.

Clearing his throat, Neji turned back toward the cliff. Parting from the horizon, the sea moved, restless. Wave after wave broke ashore, the waters swirling and rumbling angrily.

Lady Hinata cried out.

Neji swiftly turned back toward his cousin.

Hinata had her handkerchief pressed to her mouth, her face completely red. Her body swayed back only held back by her husband.

The rider was bent over her horse, her hand stretched toward Lady Hinata. Neji ran back toward the party. He heard the woman speak rapidly to Mr Uchiha: "She is positively done. Hold her, sir, she'll swoon presently!"

Neji slowed recognizing the voice.

Feeling his stare, the rider raised her face toward him, her mouth stretched in surprise.

His limbs refused to move.

Lady Tenten stared back at him.

Below, the waves receded, gurgling, spitting.

His heart burst in his chest.

* * *

_**Am I shameless? Yes. Am I enjoying the drama far too much? Also yes.**_

_**Thank you all for being so patient with me.**_

_**Happy new year, guys! I'm glad I managed to update this before the new year. huheuheuehhue Take care!**_


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